Hole in the Wall
by sunny-bear
Summary: When his friends manage to halfway destroy part of the walls of his apartment, Jason Grace is, of course, upset. The person living on the other side of the wall, however, might end up changing how he feels about the limited boundaries. Jasico, human AU. Everyone is aged up a little. Rated T for language, sorry for being that person. The rating may change later.
1. Chapter 1

Like most things that go wrong in my life, the problem began with Leo Valdez. Or, more specifically, the problem began with Leo Valdez shouting expletives in Spanish as I hear a cracking noise and the sound of a certain Piper McLean's loud, snorting laughter coming from my living room and filling my entire apartment. All this happened in the span of three seconds, following Piper's earlier loud crows of, "You won't!"

Really. All I wanted to do at the time was heat up some stir fry that was left over from the previous day, and all I get is Spanglish yelling and a crazed, endless stream of laughter. It is times like the one I am describing that make you question one's choice in friends. I closed my eyes, tilted back my head, and half-shouted into the next room, "What did you two do?"

Piper let out one more bit of laughter, and wheezed a few times. Composing herself, she half-shouted back from the other room,

"I blame Leo!"

A soft smack reached my ears, probably Leo punching Piper's arm for putting the blame on him. A louder smack, followed by more Spanish cursing, followed. "It _was_ your fault, repair boy!"

"That doesn't mean you should hit me!"

I let out a highly exaggerated sigh. I stomped over to my living room. "Honestly, if you guys knocked over my DVD case agai-"

I paused. I nodded slightly, closing my eyes.

"Valdez."

"Yeah, Superman?"

"Why is there a huge hole in my wall?"

Because there was. There was a giant hole right through the drywall, the dust from the plaster scattered over my carpet and covering a poster of some alternative band Percy gave me with a light dusting of white powder. My living room looked like the set of Miley's "Wrecking Ball" video.

I shot Leo a not-so-kind look, and he grimaced under the daggers I was shooting him. He shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "It was for science, yeah?"

"An experiment!" Piper added.

"What kind of experiment involves putting a huge hole in my living room wall?! How did you make a hole that big with just one kick?!"

They both gave me incredulous looks.

"To see if Leo could kick a hole through your wall."

"To see if I could kick a hole in your wall."

"Duh."

Neither of them answered my second question. Which probably meant there were multiple kicks, and I just didn't hear them. Why did I pick these people as friends?

Honestly, I had no idea how to respond to them. I spread my hands out, gesturing slightly in confusion. I let out a slight noise that could be described as a "Nnnguh?"

"That was eloquent," Piper said.

I finally gathered my thoughts. "What?" I asked.

"Eloquent, it means like, clearly expressing a thou-"

"I know what eloquent means, Pipes!"

"Then wh-"

"I mean what!"

"What?"

"What?"

I threw myself onto my ratty couch.

Leo _hem_-ed. "Well as interesting as it is to hear you two speak in conversational, how would you say it, Whattanese, I'm thinking you should explain what you mean by what, Superman." I stared at him. "Unless this is your rendition of a popular Lil-Jon chart topper, which I would like to join in if that's the case."

I blew a long huff of air through my nose. "My landlord is going to kill me, that's what."

Piper opened her mouth to respond when-

"Literally." A pause. "What the fuck?"

The voice came from the hole.

Leo, Piper, and I all turned towards the empty space, or not so empty space. It now held a head, followed by a set of shoulders, and a pair of hands to balance them.

"Would anyone want to explain why a dirty old work boot just kicked a hole into my apartment?"

I shot Leo another glare. The guy was getting a lot of glares at the time. See, the thing is, I live in a small apartment, that's a part of a large complex, next to another large complex. I live in the last set of rooms before the next building starts. Leo Valdez seriously had just kicked himself into the neighboring building, and into the apartment of a very angry young man.

The young and angry man in question had wavy black hair, that curled slightly over his ears, and spilled slightly over his glowering dark eyes, all the while tickling the back of his neck. He would have been extremely intimidating, and maybe a even terrifying, if he wasn't wearing a bright orange Dia de Los Muertos shirt. The dancing, grinning skeletons sort of killed the whole image. It looked like something that Leo would own unironically.

Before Leo or Piper could say anything to make the situation any worse that it already was, if it were even possible, I explained the situation to the guy.

Throughout my speech, my newfound neighbor shot Leo a series of especially devastating glares. I say that because he had been shooting all of us dirty looks, but Leo got the worst of it. Probably because the guy noticed Valdez's dirty work boots that he had mentioned earlier. When I finished explaining things, he leaned forward, and gave one final scathing gaze in Leo's direction.

"For _science_?" he asked, his voice dripping with poison.

Leo had been sinking lower and lower into my ratty brown couch throughout the entire exchange, but he made one final effort to descend completely between the cushions to avoid answering the question.

"I am so sorry, man," I said. "We can just tell our landlords and the whole thi-"

"We are not telling _either_ of our landlords."

I stared at the kid. I had been looking anywhere besides him the whole time. He was sort of scary for such a little guy. "Why would we not tell them?"

"Well, one," he said, "They would charge us, or rather, you, more than the necessary cost to fix the hole. Someone could just run to a home goods store and fix it for half the cost the landlord would charge."

"Fair enough," I said.

"And second, I am already _this_ close," he held up his hand, and pinched his forefinger and thumb together, so that there was the tiniest bit of space between the two, "to being kicked out of my apartment. I will not be evicted because some dickweed in the next building kicked a hole through the damn drywall."

I knew that Leo would not appreciate being called a dickweed, so I decided to say something before he did. I held up my hands in surrender and said, "Okay, okay, so we are just going to keep the hole?"

"Ah, ah, ah."

I raised my eyebrows. "What?"

"You are going to fix this hole." He waved his hand around the gap.

"You mean Leo is going to fix the hole?" I nodded in Leo's direction. He was trying his best to hide behind Piper at this point.

The kid shrugged. "I don't care who fixes it," he said. "As long as it gets fixed."

"Alright, man. That's only fair."

He nodded in agreement. And continued to lean through the hole. And continued to glare. Leo, Piper, and I all just sort of looked at him until he caught himself.

"Oh, yeah, right, not my apartment. I'll just be going now."

"Bye," I said.

"So long," Piper added.

"Adios," Leo said, in his most formal Spanish accent. Everyone in the room turned to glare at him.

"Like, out out. Outside."

"Okay."

"Please don't steal anything from my apartment."

With that, he ducked back into his rooms.

We all sat there on the couch until we saw the neighbor's lights go out through the hole and we thought we heard the guy's lock click. It took about twenty minutes. After that, I grabbed a pillow that was sitting next to me and whacked Leo with it.

"Mmm mM!" he said. His face was covered with pillow. Leo grabbed the pillow, threw it at me, and then clarified what he was trying to say. "Okay! I know, that was probably really stupid."

"Probably?" Piper asked.

"It was really stupid."

"Better," she said.

"When are you going to come fix it?" I asked him.

I watched Leo chew his lip as he went through his schedule in his head. "I'm not sure," he shrugged. "Honestly, this was the last free day I'll have for about two weeks. I'm going to be working at Mom's shop like all day, since Raphael decided to take a long vacation."

Piper looked at me and grinned. "That guy is going to kill you!"

"I think I should leave Valdez here as a decoy."

"Hey!"

Piper and I high-fived as Leo rolled his eyes.

It was around eleven at night when I saw the guy's lights come on through the hole. I live life on the edge, of course, so I shouted, "Welcome home!" towards the hole. A loud clatter and a string of curses in something that sounded a bit like Italian came in reply.

I heard my newfound neighbor's stomping before I saw his face poke through the hole. His dark eyes were narrowed.

"You scared the crap out of me!" he accused.

"Sorry man. Couldn't resist."

He let out a grunt in reply, glowering at me. I remember wondering if the kid ever smiled.

In turn, I felt a smile ghost across my face. "You look nice," I said. He did. He was dressed sharply in a blue button-up and high-waisted grey slacks that should have made him look like an old man, but he pulled them off pretty well.

"Thanks," he said, a little sharply.

"Hot date?"

"Excuse me?"

I put up my hands in surrender, not the first time that day. "No need to overreact, man. Sorry."

He sighed. "Its fine. And it was not a hot date, by the way, I had to go out to dinner with my family."

"How was that?"

He shot me a glare, one that seemed to say, 'You should stop asking questions, bub.'

"I see the hole still isn't fixed," he said, instead of answering.

"Leo had to go to work."

"And you can't fix it yourself?"

"I don't clean up Repair Boy's messes," I shrug. "It'll get fixed, don't worry."

"It better." He craned his neck to get a better look into my apartment. "Is that the Spongebob Squarepants Movie I hear?"

"Maybe," I side-eyed him and maybe smirked a little bit. It was.

"What are you, like twelve?"

"You caught me," I spread my hands and shot him a grin."You wanna watch it with me?"

He cocked his head, contemplating the question. Ultimately, he shrugged,"Sure, man."

With that, and a bit of trouble, he began to maneuver the rest of his body through the hole that connected our apartments.

I laughed. "Dude, what are you doing?"

He grunted as he contorted his body to get his chest through the gap in the wall. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Having troubles?" I suggested.

"I'll tell you what I'm doing," he said. "I'm going into the apartment of a strange guy who may or may not have kicked a hole through my wall so I can watch a children's movie with him."

I laughed again. By then, he had his whole torso through the hole. He got his legs through, and that was that.

"Ta-da." He said monotonously, flinging his arms out.

I clapped. "Very impressive, man." He just stood there. "You know, you could have just come into my apartment the regular way." He shrugged.

"Too much work."

"And what you just did wasn't"

"Nope." He smirked.

He continued to just stand there. "You can sit down, you know." I patted a part of the couch that wasn't completely threadbare. And then he did just as I suggested, sinking deeply into the ratty old cushions of my couch. "Do you want anything to eat or drink?" I asked.

He patted his belly. "Just ate, man."

"Okay, well I'm going to get a Pepsi. Are you sure you don't want anything?"

He made a face. "Pepsi?" He made a small, faked retching noise. "I don't know if I can stay in this room with you anymore."

"Good luck getting back into your room, then."

"I think I could manage it."

"I think you could manage being a gymnast. Those were some pretty sick contortions."

"I probably looked like one of those blow up wavy arm things trying to get through that hole."

"A little bit, yeah."

Clearly bored with the conversation, the kid just turned away from me and watched the screen. The corners of his eyes crinkled at Spongebob's ice cream drunkenness.

"You a Coke type of guy, then?" I asked him, bringing the conversation back to when he insulted my choice in soft drink.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Fuck you, Watson." He laughed a little at that. I smiled. "I also have Dr. Pepper, instead of Pepsi, is that cool with you for a drink?"

"Sure, I guess."

While he watched Spongebob's managerial dreams get crushed, I grabbed the two sodas from my mini-fridge. When I came back to the guy, he was busy picking at a loose thread in the armrest of my couch.

"Hey, hey, hey!" I said, handing him his pop. "Don't hurt Phyllis."

He popped the top of the drink. "You named your couch Phyllis?"

I stroked the cushion next to me. "We've been through a lot together." I traced an imaginary tear down my cheek.

He just stared at me.

"You are a total freak." I sipped my Pepsi, and then grinned. His eyes focused on the scar on my lip. I think I saw the corners of his mouth flip up a little bit.

He held out his hand. "I'm Nico, by the way."

"I'm Jason Grace." I took his hand and shook it. His hands were freezing, but he had a nice, firm handshake.

"Nice to meet you, Grace."

"Nice to meet you too, Nico."

I took another drink of Pepsi, and basically just watched the kid, or Nico, watch the movie. He didn't so much laugh at the movie, but mostly just let out huffs of air through his nose. He snorted at the Hasselhoff scene.

The only other time he laughed the entire night was when he caught me staring at him. He started to give me a dirty look before I started wagging my eyebrows wildly from behind my soda can. At that, he laughed and laughed, and then cursed wildly when he got a noseful of Dr. Pepper after a violent snort.

"Shit!" he shouted, getting a spray of soda all over Phyllis.

It was the start of a beautiful thing.

**_A/N:_** Hey all! I'm not dead! I am so so so sorry that I haven't updated anything recently. I know everyone was expecting an update for a Hetalia fic for a while, but this idea would not leave me alone and I had to get it down before anything else. School is finally coming to a close, so hopefully I will be able to actually update things now. Thank you so much for reading. You guys should let me know if I should continue this business through a review or a favorite ;^ )


	2. Chapter 2

I groaned loudly into my phone,"Leo," I dragged out his name so it was more like a "Leooooooooo!" I _thunk_ed my head against the wall. "What do you mean you can't come today?"

"I mean I can't come today!"

"Valdez, it's been two weeks!"

I heard my friend whine on the other end of the line. "I know, I know, but honestly, I really can't come in and fix that hole today."

"And why is that, bro?"

"Its my mom's birthday! I sent you the invitation, _idiota_!"

I cursed under my breath. "That was _today_?"

"I just said it was. So no one can come and fix it, because we'll be partying hard at the event of the year, yeah?"

"Did you plan the party, Leo?"

"Yeah."

"I'll expect salsa and stale chips to be the whole party, then."

Leo laughed. "Screw you, man. I'm a great cook."

"Sure, man. Do you want me to come over and help you set up and everything?"

"Yeah, I guess. Pipes is helping out as well, it'll be like a pre-party."

"Oh yeah," I said, "We'll go hard."

"Come over after lunch, aight?"

"Aight. See you then, man."

I touched the "end call" button on my screen and tossed my phone next to me on the couch. I pinched my nose and squeezed my eyes shut. I was dead. Nico was going to _kill_ me. I had reassured him that the whole would definitely be fixed soon. And the way I look at it, two weeks later is not very soon, and it was definitely past the deadline I had given him. And just then, a small black-haired head popped through the hole in my wall. "Speak of the devil," I smiled at the grumpy face Nico was giving me. _Smile through the pain, Jayce_, I thought. Nico still had bedhead, even though it was almost the afternoon.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Do you not know-"

"I'm not dull, Grace, I know what 'speak of the devil' means, I mean why were you talking about me?"

"Oh." I steeled myself for the verbal barrage I was about to receive. "Well, you see, I just figured out that the hole isn't going to be fixed by today, like I said it was…" I trailed off.

Nico glared. His lips became a thin line. "And why is that?"

"Well, its Ms. Valdez's birthday-"

"Who is Ms. Valdez?"

"Leo's mom, Nico, keep up. Anyway, its her birthday, and we're having a party." Nico did not look impressed. "And Leo, Pipes, and I are setting up beforehand. And that's in like, an hour, and the party will probably last a while. So there's no time for the hole to be fixed." He just stared at me.

"Alright," he finally said.

"Alright?"

"Yeah, alright. That's fine."

"Oh, wow. Cool."

"You seem surprised."

"Yeah, I was expecting you to react a little more strongly."

"Nah, its cool." He shrugged. "It'll get fixed eventually."

I gave him an odd look, but didn't question him anymore. It was just sort of unlike him to take the news so calmly. Especially considering he had been so upset about it earlier.

"So what are you all doing for the party?"

"Um," I shrugged. "Well, Leo is making dinner and snacks. Me and Piper will probably just be sitting around and making fun of Leo's baby pictures with his mom."

"It doesn't sound like you two will be much help."

I spread my hands helplessly. "Maybe we'll put up streamers or something?"

"Impressive."

I smiled a little bit. "So what are you doing today?"

He rocked back and forth on his heels. I could tell, you know, because his head sort of bobbed in and out of the hole. "Nothing? I think. Maybe I'll marathon some movies."

"What kind of movies?"

"Nosey, aren't we?"

"A little bit." I scratched the back of my head. "What kind of movies do you like?"

Nico kept silent. At first, I thought he was ignoring me, but quickly realized he was thinking. "I'll watch just about anything, I guess," he said. "I like musicals?" He said it like it was a question.

"You like to sing?"

"You really do ask too many questions, Grace." He shrugged, and tilted his head to the side. A little too hard, maybe, because he hit it pretty hard on the side of the hole, knocking off a big piece of the dry wall. "Damn." He said, brushing plaster dust out of his hair.

"Nice job, man."

"Shut up, Grace."

"Looks like it may be up to you to fix the hole."

"Hell no. Your friend can just fix a slightly bigger hole."

I shrugged. "Whatever, I guess. You never answered my question."

"Which was?"

"Do you like to sing?"

He just gave me a glare. As per usual. "I'll see you later, Grace." He ducked back into his apartment.

"Yeah, alright, bye," I said to his retreating form.

Ms. Valdez's house always smelled like cheap vanilla scented candles, like the kind you get at big chain stores, with the barest trace of machine oil on the air, from so many work shirts and pants that made their way into the house to be washed. She lived in a little house just outside of the city, one that was just big enough for her and her son. Her space had an organized disorderliness, where everything had its place, as opposed to her son who just left things wherever and whenever. Leo had put in a lot of thought to decorating, so we had to make a few trips between his shitty car and his mother's door to get all the stuff he bought in.

"Its so I can get you two lazy bums to actually do work for once," he said.

So, while Piper and I covered his mother's entire living space with streamers and balloons, Leo cooked tamales in the kitchen.

"What are you thinking about?" Piper asked.

"Hm?"

"You look distracted, as if you are not fully dedicated to the exciting task of hanging up cheap paper streamers Leo bought for like a dollar, and I'm wondering why. Because this is the most fun I've had in a while."

"Oh," I said, ignoring her chiding. I didn't realize I looked distracted, but I guess I was at the time. "I was thinking about that kid that lives next door."

"Nico, right?" I nodded. "He upset about the whole hole thing?"

"Whole hole?"

Piper elbowed me. "Yeah, the whole hole."

I grabbed the tape from Piper to fasten a red streamer above a Leo's senior picture. "Well, you know that," I said the next part at a yell,"Leo is a worthless asscheek who is too lazy to fix the hole in my wall!"

Leo stuck his head in the living room, "Thanks, bro, I love you too." He ducked back into the kitchen to dodge the bag of balloons Piper threw at him.

Piper walked over to the kitchen door to grab the bag she threw. She looked over her shoulder. "So Leo is worthless," she said. "Go on?"

"Well, he didn't come fix the hole. But the thing is, Nico wasn't upset about it. Isn't that weird?"

Piper shrugged and held up a finger, gesturing for me to hang on. She was busy blowing up a balloon, no time to reply. She finished blowing, and as she tied up the balloon, she smirked at me. "Maybe he likes having you so close."

I gave her a look that said '_Really?_' "I don't think that guy likes anything."

"Except you," she teased, waggling her eyebrows.

"And musicals."

She laughed, "What?"

I was about to explain when Leo yelled from the kitchen. "¡_Vengase pa'ca_! You guys, come help me set up the dinner table."

Piper and I let out a synchronized groan.

After setting the table, we helped Leo ice his mom's cake. Around the time we finished, Ms. Valdez walked into the kitchen. "The cake is beautiful, _mi hijo_!" she said.

"Hi, Esperanza," I greeted her with a one-armed hug.

Leo protested loudly when his mom walked over and kissed his curly head. "Mama, you can't see the cake! Go sit with Piper in the living room."

After some convincing, a small push, and a kiss on the cheek, Esperanza went to go sit with Piper on the couch.

Leo covered the cake with tin foil, and stuck it in the microwave where no one would see it. He licked some icing off his fingers. "Sorry again for not coming in for that hole."

"Its alright," I shrugged. "Nico isn't upset about the lateness, so its whatever."

"I wonder why he wasn't upset. He was pretty mad when it first happened."

"You mean, when _you_ first happened?" I prompted.

He grinned. "Yep."

"Yeah," I said. "I thought it was weird that he didn't overreact as well. It doesn't seem like him."

"And you know what Nico is like?"

I shrugged. "I guess so. He's sort of wiggled into my apartment a few times to have dinner, or to watch a movie, or something like that."

"Why doesn't he just use the door?"

I shrugged. That was a little bit of a mystery. "So who all is coming to this shindig?"

He shrugged. "You guys, Hazel..." he paused to think. "I think Piper invited Annabeth, who invited Percy, who invited Reyna."

"Big crowd, huh?"

"Yeah. Zhang is probably coming with Hazel. I'm pretty sure Tía Rosa is coming?" At that, he faked a vomiting fit. "And I think that's it."

"Should be fun."

"Everything that happens at La Casa de Leo is a good time, man! Let's go chill out with my mom."

"Sounds like a real good time."

He punched my arm, and we headed into his living room.

The party was uneventful until Ms. Valdez starting opening presents. That's when Hazel realized she had left her present for Esperanza at her apartment.

"Frank, I thought I told you to grab it!"

"I thought I did," he groaned.

"Well, shoot." Hazel said. "I guess I'll just head back to my house and get it."

Frank shook his head. "You don't have to do that."

Hazel grabbed Ms. Valdez's hand. "I have to get Esperanza's present here on time!"

"Your brother isn't doing anything tonight, I mean," Frank said. "He told us he was just chilling out tonight. That new friend he has can't hang tonight."

"That's right. I guess I'll ask him to pick it up for me."

As Hazel pulled out her phone to text her brother, Leo leaned his head against my shoulder. "Bro." he whispered to me.

"Bro?" I whispered back.

"Hazel has a brother?"

"I guess so."

So while Ms. Valdez opened her presents, Leo and I waited for Hazel's brother to show up. Apparently me, Piper, and Leo were the only people who didn't know he existed. Percy was especially excited to see the guy, who had apparently been ignoring his texts. Percy was also excited because of Esperanza's enthusiasm for the present he gave her (a signed Bob the Builder poster).

Esperanza ended up with mostly practical gifts: tools, new clothes, that sort of thing. Reyna got her a boxed set of the first season of some Spanish soap she and Ms. Valdez both watched, but that was the most out-there item she received.

That was when Hazel's brother pulled up into the Valdez' cracked driveway. He drove a sleek, black BMW, it looked fairly new, and well taken care of. I knew that Hazel's family was pretty wealthy, but this car was probably the nicest thing I'd seen in a while, especially considering I lived in the part of the city that's mostly inhabited by struggling students and those just out of college. Leo whimpered a little bit when he saw the car. As soon as Hazel's brother walked in the door, he was probably going to ask if he could go look at it. When Hazel's brother rang the doorbell and was welcomed in for a slice of cake, Piper, Leo, and I craned our necks to get a good look into the entrance hall to see the guy. I widened my eyes, and I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped a little when I said,"Nico? You're Hazel's brother?"

That's when Nico actually walked into the living room, where we were all on the couch or on the floor, or in the case of Piper, halfway hanging off the arm of the chair Reyna was sitting in. I'm pretty sure if I had been sitting there, I would of fallen off of my seat out of shock. Nico had actually gotten dressed and brushed his hair to come drop off the present. I realized I had never seen him out of the lounge clothes he wore around his apartment, and he apparently dressed pretty well when he hadn't just woken up. He was wearing one of those fashionably worn-in leather jackets, with a black t-shirt underneath. His blue jeans were just the right kind of rumpled and distressed, and he wore pretty expensive looking black boots. He had his shaggy black hair in a little ponytail, which was actually a pretty good look for him. If he hadn't been wearing sunglasses, I'm pretty sure his eyes would have widened as much as mine did. I wondered why he was wearing sunglasses, since it was dark outside.

"Jason?" he asked. "_This_ is the party you were going to?"

Leo shook his head and held up his hands. "Wait, wait, wait," he gestured at Hazel, and then at Nico. "How are you guys related?"

"We have the same dad," Hazel said. As if that cleared everything up.

"How do you know Hazel?" Nico asked me.

"She was in my-"

Hazel interrupted me,"Stop. Nico, is this that _guy_ you were talking about?" She said guy with a ton of emphasis, and kind of bugged her eyes out a little bit.

Frank gasped. "_That guy?_"

"That guy!"

Nico took off his sunglasses and rubbed at his eyes. "Everyone stop talking for a minute. Yes, Hazel is my sister. We have the same dad. And Jason is the guy that knocked my wall out, Hazel." Nico shot Hazel a dirty look.

"Oh," she said. "Oh! Sorry." _Sorry for what_, I wondered.

"Hi, Nico." Percy said.

"Hi, Percy." Nico averted his eyes as he said that.

Annabeth looked at me. "If you're such good friends with Hazel, how did you not know Nico?"

"I do know Nico, I just didn't know he was Hazel's brother."

Reyna gave me a look that said 'Really?'. "That's a feat, to be so clueless."

Ms. Valdez cleared her throat. "Now, I don't want to interrupt whatever this is, but its getting late, and I would like to have the cake my son baked before I fall asleep."

Leo whacked the back of my head. "Jason can come help me cut the cake."

"Sure."

As I walked past Nico, I gave him a look that I hoped said 'We need to talk later'.

Leo pointed at the stack of paper plates that were sitting next to the kitchen sink. "Grab some forks and put 'em on ten plates," he said.

"Alright."

As I did that, Leo cut the cake and stuck some candles in it. He looked over his shoulder. "This is the last place I'd think to see that kid."

I shrugged. "Its a pleasant surprise, I guess."

"Yeah, real pleasant."

He carried the cake and a lighter into the living room, while I passed out plates to everyone. We sang the 'Happy Birthday' song to Ms. Valdez, and Leo passed a slice of cake to everyone. As everyone dug into the cake, I motioned Nico to come sit in the little space of couch that was left next to me. He walked over, and sat down, crossing his ankles.

"So," I said. "Did this interrupt your evening of musical watching and singing?"

He looked at Hazel, and then shrugged. "Not really. Coming to help Hazel was more exciting than that. Watching movies by yourself can be a little boring." He glared at me. "And I wasn't singing."

"You finally answered the question!"

"Yeah, whatever."

"You totally did." I elbowed him. "It also sounds like you've gotten pretty used to watching movies with me."

"Not a chance."

"Not even a little?"

He turned away from me, but not before I caught a smile. "Nope."

I shoved a forkful of cake into my mouth. "Whatever, man."

He picked at his slice of cake. I ate some more of mine before saying, "You look pretty nice, by the way."

"What?" He looked down at his clothes. "Oh. Thanks."

"I've never seen you without a ratty skeleton shirt and bedhead."

He shrugged. "That's what I look like most of the time. I just thought I might as well look nice in front of Hazel and her friends." He smirked a little bit. "I probably wouldn't have done anything if I knew you were here, though."

"Am I not worthy of the new and improved Nico Levesque?"

"Nope," he said. "Also, my last name isn't Levesque."

"Oh. I assumed it was, since Hazel is your sister."

"Nope, that's her mom's last name. My last name is di Angelo."

"Huh." I said. "Italian."

"Yeah."

He looked down at his mostly uneaten piece of cake. "Here," he pushed the slice onto my plate. "I'm going to go home. I'll see you later."

"Okay. I'll see you when I get home, I guess."

Nico nodded. He looked over at Ms. Valdez. "Thank you for letting me come intrude on your party, Ms. Valdez."

"You're welcome," she said. "Any of Leo's friends are welcome here."

Nico was probably about to say that he wasn't Leo's friend, but probably thought better of it. He walked over to Hazel, and kissed her goodbye. He fistbumped Frank, nodded at me one last time, and headed back out to his BMW.

That's when Piper squeezed into the spot Nico had been taking. "He looked like he was having a pretty good time, Jayce."

I elbowed her in the gut. "Stop it," I groaned.

I was smiling, though.

_**A/N:** Yay, an update! Sorry it took a while! I brought in some more characters this chapter, although there were so many, it was hard to work them into the scenes. Also, Ms. Valdez is alive in this, as well as Ms. Zhang and Ms. Grace and all the other dead moms. No dead moms here. As always, a favorite, a review, anything would be nice! Its great to know what you all think of my stories. See you all soon!_


	3. Chapter 3

When I got back to my apartment, Nico was already sitting on my couch, picking at a loose thread on the arm rest. I might have been a little bit startled when I flipped on the lights and saw him just sitting there, and in turn dropped the food Leo sent home with me. Nico didn't make any move to help me pick up the scattered food, which at the time, I thought was a real dick move. There were a lot of tiny grains of rice that were pretty hard to pick out of the carpet. There's probably still some grains still stuck in there, which is why I should really invest in a vacuum cleaner. Nico watched me as I bent over to pick up a tamale that was making a halfway effort to roll into my kitchen.

"So," he said. "How do you know Hazel?"

Instead of answering, I replied, "You know, you should really ask before you come into my apartment."

He stuck out his lip, and squeezed his eyes shut a little. "This is really rude, isn't it?" He stood up. "I can go."

I waved him off. "Nah, dude, its fine. Its sort of like we're living in the same apartment anyway, right?"

"Sure, an apartment with a really fucking small door."

"You're the one that insists on using it."

"That's only because you keep really good snacks in your fridge."

"Are you seri-"

"I'm joking," Nico said, totally straight faced. "Really, the only thing you keep in your fridge is orange juice, soda, and almost-expired lunch meat. I'm surprised you aren't dead yet."

"I'm very robust. Also I eat out a lot."

"Mhm. So are you going to answer that question?"

"What question?"

"How do you know Hazel?"

"Oh." I finished gathering up the food that I had dropped, and walked into the kitchen to stick it into the fridge. Hey, five second rule, right? I grabbed a Pepsi and a Dr. Pepper from the fridge for me and Nico, respectively. I walked back into my living room and flopped down onto the couch next to Nico. He was looking at me, motioning with his hands for me to continue talking. I stopped his hand movement when I passed

him the Dr. Pepper. The kid moved his hands around a lot, which was a little endearing. He sipped his pop while I explained how I met Hazel.

* * *

I go to the same university as Hazel, which is the same university that all my friends, with the exception of Leo, who goes to community college, go to. Apparently Nico attends the university as well. I don't know how I couldn't have noticed the kid before, but I'm getting off the subject. I was walking to my class on Sophocles last year when I passed by a cork board that was outside one of the art studios that the classics college has in its building. I gave the board a once over, to see if there was anything of interest. Besides a lot of flyers for frat parties that happened weeks ago, mostly from Percy and Grover's fraternity, there was one flyer that caught my eye. Apparently, a Ms. Marie Levesque was giving a seminar on zombies, 'The Origin of the Zombie', to be exact. Now, we've all seen that one National Geographic special about the roots of the modern zombie, but it looked like a cool way to waste a Thursday night, so I was in the classroom at 7:30, ready to hear about some undead.

I had googled Marie Levesque, and she was a middle aged black woman who had a fortune telling shop in New Orleans. Imagine my surprise when a little duplicate of her, but thirty years younger walks into the room, and stands behind the podium. The Marie Levesque clone then introduced herself as Hazel Levesque, her daughter.

"My mother has been feeling under the weather, so I'm here to give the lecture today."

And that she did. The more she spoke, the more I was convinced she was the most occult 17 year old I had ever seen. Once the lecture was over, and most of the crowd filed out with stunned looks on their faces, I walked right up to Hazel.

"That was amazing!" I said. She thanked me. "So how did you get all the way here from New Orleans?" I asked.

That's when I learned she went to school here. She was a visual arts major, but was also thinking about minoring in zoology. "I've only just begun freshman year, so I've got a little while to decide."

We chatted for a little bit, and I learned a few things about her. She started school pretty early, and was a little overwhelmed by how much older everyone else was. Her dad lived in the city, and she was living with him during the summer while she was studying for her degree. For now, though, since she was a freshman, she was staying in a dorm with a girl named Lacey. She could touch her nose with her tongue, liked wearing her hair in braids, and her favorite color of shoe to wear was white, even if they made her look like a nurse. She loved swing music, and danced the lindy hop on the weekends, but she also can dig Beyonce.

She was a nice girl, basically. We exchanged numbers, and a friendship was born. I introduced her to my friend group, and she fit like a glove with us. That was about it.

* * *

"Huh," Nico said.

"Yep."

"I'm still super confused as to how we never met each other before two weeks ago."

"It doesn't really make any sense, I guess." I shrugged. "Oh well. I'm glad that we met, though."

"Don't get all sappy like that," he grumbled, elbowing me in the ribs.

"Sappy is my only mode, man." I spread my hands for emphasis. "All sap. All the time."

"Like a tree."

The corners of his mouth lifted a little bit. Maybe not enough to qualify as a smile, but I would take it. He passed the half-full can of Dr.

Pepper he had been drinking to me, and stood up. "I guess I'm going to go," he said. "Through your door this time."

"You can stay longer, if you want?"

He waved his hand. "I'm fine, I need to get to bed early anyway."

"Why do you need to get to bed early for on a Friday in the middle of summer?"

"Wedding dress shopping, tomorrow."

"You're getting married?" I asked.

He snorted. "No, dummy, my dad is."

"I bet your dad will look really good in his wedding dress."

"Oh, my God," he said. "Stop."

"I'll stop if you do one thing for me."

He caught on that I was going to continue talking to him, because he started leaning on my wall with one shoulder, with his arms crossed. I always thought people looked kind of sexy and all that when they used that pose. Like some sort of corny 80's teen-movie heartthrob. Irrelevant, of course.

"What do you want me to do, Grace?"

"Get coffee with me sometime?" I blurted out. It sort of just popped out of my mouth. I didn't plan exactly on asking him out on a friendly meeting-not a date, I affirmed to myself-but as soon as I said it, I knew that was what I had wanted this whole time. I really wanted to get to know the kid better, and I knew that he liked coffee, so there we were.

He raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"I'll think about it," Nico said, his back to me as he walked out of my door. As he walked down and around to his apartment, I couldn't see the blush that was spreading on his cheeks.

* * *

Two days later, I was at Hazel's door, knocking. When she opened up said door, in lieu of greeting I simply asked, "What can you tell me about Nico?"

She invited me in. Her dad had a really nice house. By house, I probably shouldn't say that, because its really, really big. Maybe not big enough to be called a mansion, since it _is _in the middle of the city, but it was still on the large side. We walked through the entrance hall into the living room, where there was a large television set into the wall. As she led me to the living room, I was sort of blown away by how stupid I felt. There were tons of pictures of Nico in the house, of him as a kid, in high school, and a few recent looking ones. There were a few with a girl that looked a bit like him, who I assumed was another sister. But really, there were so many photos of the guy. I was feeling sort of silly for never meeting the guy before.

Hazel sat me down on a soft leather couch. "What do you want to know?" she asked.

"Everything?"

"Why do you need to know everything about my brother, Jason Grace?"

"I just want to know more about the guy." It was a weak statement. I knew that Hazel could tell it was weak. I saw it in her eyes. "What does he like?" I offered, once again weakly.

"Coffee," she said. "Dogs. Tacky skeleton shirts. You need to be more specific, Jason, he likes a lot of things."

I wracked my brains for a second. "What kind of music does he like?"

"Anything," she said. "He listens to some of his mom's Italian bands sometimes. But really, why do you want to know about Nico?"

"I want to have some good conversation topics," I said. It wasn't a wrong statement.

"You plan that sort of thing ahead?"

"Well, we are getting coffee sometime, maybe, and I want to be able to hold his attention."

"Wait, wait, wait," she was grinning. "You're taking him out for coffee?"

"Not taking him out exactly, but we are going to-"

"Oh, that is perfect!" she was practically glowing at this point, her smile was so bright.

I gave her the most confused look I could muster. "Why is it perfect?"

"Well, because Nico…" she trailed off. "Never mind." She started toying with one of her cinnamon-colored curls.

"No, no, I am interested. Why is it perfect?"

"You don't know about it, so I'm not saying anything."

"Hazel."

"Nope."

"Hazel."

"Stop."

"Ha-"

"I'm not saying anything!" she pursed her lips. "Its perfect because Nico doesn't have many friends, so its nice to see him getting out to do something."

"That's not really why, is it?"

"Nope."

"But you're not going to actually say why, are you?"

"No, sirree."

"Got it."

* * *

After Hazel, I sort of interrogated all of my mutual friends with Nico. I felt like I was overdoing it a bit, and I wasn't really sure why I even wanted to know so much about the kid. I would learn enough about him at the little get-together we were having, but it was just this sort of 'I need to know!' thing.

Most of my friends said the same thing. He liked to be alone, to keep to himself. He had a bad habit of marathoning entire seasons of television shows late at night when he should be sleeping. (Although I already knew that one, I've had many sleepless nights from hearing him streaming Ugly Betty for hours on end.) He had a really embarrassing emo phase, with eyeliner-laden photos to prove it. His favorite Disney movie was Beauty and the Beast, but you don't want to sit with him when he watches it, because he sings along, and his Lumiere impression is terrible. An avid collector of tacky skeleton t-shirts, he could also clean up very nicely. (I could have told Percy that one, but whatever.)

Percy had the most to say. Apparently, he had known Nico for a while, since he was in eighth grade, and Nico was in fifth. He was a really annoying kid, I was told. His sister, not Hazel, obviously, a different one, Bianca Di Angelo, died in a car crash during the winter break of that school year, and after that, he became a different person. They were very close, Percy said, and it really hit Nico hard.

That explained most of what everyone else said about Nico, obviously.

Despite the less than kind things some of our mutual acquaintances said about Nico, it didn't diminish my desire to get to know him better. He was just a really interesting guy. That was my excuse I gave to Piper, at least. What I had told Hazel earlier was pretty close to the truth, actually. I knew Nico was a moody guy, and I needed safe conversation topics. I didn't want to say the wrong thing and to ruin our first formal encounter. I could really see myself having a future with the guy. I have this thing where I can't give up on what I started, and getting Nico to trust me as a friend was one of them.

* * *

Of course, when I walked to Nico's door, my plans were ruined. I figured that it would be a better move to get him at his door rather than have him clamber through the whole that went through our conjoined wall. I might or might not have called Piper and had a crisis on what to wear to this little get-together, or as Piper called it, a date. There were severe protests on my part, but it did not stop her chiding. Since it was _not _a date, I just wore a red hoodie and jeans, and some beat up Clark's. I knocked on Nico's door after an interesting conversation with a woman with a head of frizzy white hair on the floor below. I leaned against the door frame and waited for him to come out.

Nico answered the door, yawning. His hair was up in a ponytail again, and he apparently caught the "not a date" memo, because he was wearing the most worn out pair of jeans I've ever seen, along with a Halloween-themed shirt he probably got out of the bargain bin at Walmart. He obviously was not trying to flaunt the son-of-a-rich-kid look, which I was a little bummed out over, because he could really pull that off.

"Yeah?" he asked. "Why are you coming to my front door?"

"Coffee?"

"Shit," was all he said.

"Shit?"

"That was today," he stepped back into his apartment. "And I was going to try to look nice for it."

"Why would you try to dress nicely?" I shrugged, and laughed a little nervously. "Its not like its a date, or anything."

"Yeah," he said. "Not a date." He looked down at his feet.

"Ready to go then?"

He made a small noise, that really could be interpreted as anything, yes or no. I took it as a yes, and we made our way back to the street.

"Where are we going?"

"You know that coffee shop Grover and Percy work at?"

He stopped walking. "Seriously?"

"What?"

"You're taking me to a Starbucks?"

I grimaced. "That's bad isn't it?"

"You insult me, Grace." He made a mock look of disgust.

The grimace turned into a grin. "You're such a snob."

"Whatever. I'm going to take you to a real coffee shop."

"Snob."

He didn't protest to it that time. He just grabbed my hand and dragged me in the opposite direction I was originally taking him. The whole walk over to the little corner coffee shop was a bit of a blur, as I was a bit distracted by Nico's slightly clammy palm and fingers covering mine.

After we walked in, Nico walked up to the counter, and greeted the barista, some moody looking man with a pointed beard. He came here often, apparently. He ordered some complicated drink, with a double shot of whatever, and a sprinkle of such-and-such. I didn't know how to follow that, so I just asked for the same thing. This was the sort of place where you paid as you were leaving, so Nico and I went and sat at a corner table to wait for our drinks.

And he got right to the point.

"Why were you asking about me?"

I was a little stunned. "Huh?" I asked, quite eloquently.

"You asked almost all of our mutual friends about me, Jason. Why?"

"I wanted to know about you."

"But why?" I shrugged, and was about to tell him, but then he cut me off. "That's the only reason why I agreed to do this, you know." The

way he said it, spit it right out like it was paining him, it made me think that maybe that wasn't the case, but I didn't protest or argue against it or anything. There was also the fact that he was going to try to dress up for it. I thought for sure that Nico wanted to do this as much as I did.

"You seem like a really interesting guy, Nico," I said. "I just…" I trailed off, trying to think of something that would appease him. "I want to see more of you, more than just your little head through that hole to tell me to turn down my music, or whatever. I was asking around so that I could have a conversation with you that would interest you."

"I don't see why you can't just leave it alone."

"Because-"

He cut me off. "It doesn't matter. I'm just the guy that's next door, you don't have to want to get close to me."

"Yes, but-"

"And who said I ever wanted to get close to you?"

I didn't know how to respond to that one. But then I recalled something that Percy had said. And though I knew it was only going to make this conversation continue going in the wrong direction, I said, "Why do you always push everyone away, Nico?"

His eyes narrowed, and his hands gripped the table, his knuckles white. "That's none of your business, Grace."

"I want to know why."

"Why do you care?"

"Is it because of your sister?"

He jumped straight out of his seat. His fists were clenched. "Don't you dare talk about Bianca."

"Nico, I just want to-"

"I don't care what you want," he spit out.

"I just-"

"Here's what I want:," he said. "I want you to leave me alone, Jason. Stop asking after me. I don't want you to help me, or make me feel better about myself, or whatever you're doing." He turned his back on me.

"Nico, don't go," I started reaching towards his hand, wanting to hold it like we were doing on the street, but then thought better of it. "I didn't mean to make you upset."

"I'm not upset," he said. "I'm leaving. Goodbye."

And then he left. Of course, as he rushed out the door, the grumpy man working the counter brought over our coffee. I paid the guy as quickly as I could, and, leaving the coffee abandoned on the table, I rushed out of the coffee shop to find Nico. And he was nowhere to be seen. Typical. And since the guy wanted to be alone, I decided to head back to my apartment.

Once I got there, I sort of got into the thought that maybe Nico didn't even want me to leave him alone, since he was watching Game of Thrones very loudly in his living room. You'd think he would actively try to avoid me. As I heard the unmistakable sound of Viserys Targaryen's face getting melted off, I strided purposefully to the hole in my sitting room's wall.

"Nico, we need to talk!" I called through the opening.

"No, we don't!" he called back. He turned his television set off, and I heard his footsteps travel away from me, probably to his bedroom. I heard a door close.

Now, I was determined to talk this out with Nico. I didn't want to leave such a big disagreement, or whatever that was, alone. So, I did the logical thing, and started to wiggle through the hole that separated our apartments.

My head and neck got through alright, but my shoulders are pretty broad. That was a problem, and the worst possible thing happened. About an inch or two of wriggling occurred until the broadest part of my shoulders tried to shimmy through the hole. And I got stuck. I could have gotten out by just thrashing around and creating a bigger hole by breaking the drywall, but that didn't seem like a very good idea. Also, I realized this was a good tactic to getting Nico to come out and talk to me. Before I began my strategy, I took my first good glance at Nico's apartment. I could only see the living room and a hallway that probably headed to a bathroom and a bedroom. The living room was kind of messy, but not nearly as messy as say, Percy's room in his fraternity's house. To the right of my head was proof of Nico's dad being super wealthy, a really big TV that sat on a wooden cabinet that probably held DVDs and that sort of thing. Looking at the television, I was wondering why we ever watched movies in my apartment, since his setup was much better than mine. I then realized it was probably because if I tried to get into Nico's apartment, I obviously would get stuck. Because there I was. He also had a leather couch, and some pictures hanging on the wall. I also recognized a painting on the wall that was clearly made by Hazel. Down the short hallway, I could see a bar of light seeping from underneath one of the two doors. I decided it was time to enact my strategy.

"Nico!" I called. No response. I tried again. "Nico!" I called, drawing out the 'o' on the end. Still no reply so I called out, "Nico, I'm stuck." That got a response.

The door with light coming from beneath it opened, and light flooded the empty living room I was looking into. Nico stepped out of the room and into the light. He had changed into pajamas, soft-looking, red flannel pants, and a big grey shirt t-shirt that had some sort of black logo on it. He didn't look very happy. "What do you mean, you're 'stuck'?" he asked. Then he got a good look at me. "Oh."

"Hi."

"Are you having troubles?"

"Yep."

Nico walked over into the living room, coming closer to me. "You know, I'm still mad at you."

"I just wanted to talk it out." I tried to shrug, but it didn't really work out. "You shouldn't let anyone go to bed angry."

"I always go to bed angry."

I wanted to smile at that, but figured he would probably get mad if I smiled. So I just asked, "Can we please talk it out."

Then he really crossed the room, and sat right in front of me, on the floor, so we were face to face. "What is there to talk about?" I was about to respond, but he put a finger to his lips, like he was motioning for someone to be quiet. "That was a rhetorical question."

"Oh," I said.

He ran a hand through his hair. "Everything you heard is true, I guess." I realized that most of this talking-it-out thing was going to be Nico talking. I was alright with that, though. "I push people away. I can't maintain friendships, and.." he trailed off.

"Keep going?" I wanted to hear what he had to say.

"And," he looked straight into my eyes. I shuddered. "There's no way anyone would ever want to be in a relationship with me." He looked down at his lap. "I don't know. This isn't easy to talk about."

"You don't have to, if you don't want to." His face was hidden by a curtain of wavy black hair, but I could imagine the grimace on his face. I wanted so badly to reach out and touch him, to comfort him, but he probably would have gotten angry if I touched him. "I can share about myself, if that would make it easier?"

"What would you have to say?" Nico asked. He looked back up at me. "You're the perfect golden boy, Grace." His voice was heavy with cruel sarcasm, but I couldn't bring myself to get mad at the teasing.

"There's a reason I live in the city." I said. "And there's a reason why I live on the other side of the country from my parents." I ran my tongue over my teeth. "I'm the result of my father cheating on his wife. I'm here because he wants me out of his sight, so he doesn't have to look at his mistakes." I dropped my eyes from Nico's gaze. "I get money for school and for living expenses, and that's it. I haven't seen the guy since I was eight, Nico." I must have looked ridiculous, halfway jammed into a wall, and spilling my guts. "My mother is dead…" I trailed off. "I don't know what to say. My life isn't perfect, I guess."

"I didn't know," Nico said. He put his hand under my chin and tilted my head up, so that I was looking at him again. His eyes were soft, and sweet, and sad, the anger all gone. I could have looked at him for hours. "I was so close with Bianca," he started. "She was my best friend, she was the best person I've ever known."

"You don't have to-"

"I'm going to talk about it Jason." Nico's mouth formed a watery smile. "A few days before Christmas, when I was ten, she was heading to a stupid holiday party, with a few friends." I knew where this story was headed, and looking at Nico while he told it, you could just see how badly his heart was broken. "Percy was with her, in the car. There was a drunk driver." He shrugged. His smile was the saddest thing I've ever seen. "The doctors said she died instantly. Its a miracle that everyone else in the car survived. They got out with," his voice caught. "They got out with scratches."

"I'm so sorry, Nico."

There were tears falling down on his cheeks, but he furiously blinked them away. "Its been nine years, you'd think I could move on." He fiddled with a piece of hair. "I don't know. After Bianca, I just can't trust myself to get close to anyone. I'm scared that they're going to leave."

"I won't leave you, Nico."

"You can't just promise things like that, Jason."

"I just did. I'll always want to be here for you, Nico."

He ducked his head down again. "We met each other less than two months ago. You can't just say that. You barely know me."

"I know that I want to know you more."

"You wouldn't say that if you _really_ knew me. You would hate me."

"Nico, you need to stop saying things like that."

"Its true!"

"What could you possibly be hiding that would make me hate you?"

"I-" he stopped himself. "I've never actually said it out loud."

"Hey, Nico," I said, as gently as I could. "Look at me." He did. "I'm not going to hate you. You're my friend."

"I haven't even told Hazel."

"Are you scared that she's going to judge you?"

"Yes."

"She loves you, Nico. All your friends do. We won't hate you because of whatever it is."

"You can't tell anyone, Jason. I don't want you to tell anyone."

"Okay."

"You promise you won't hate me?" he asked weakly. I wanted to hold him so badly.

"I pinky swear."

"Your hands aren't even in the room," Nico smiled as he said that.

"Imagine I'm doing a pinky swear in your m-"

"I'm gay."

Oh.

I didn't say anything at first, and Nico started panicking, saying things like, "Oh, god, oh, I shouldn't have said that. Fuck. Fuck. Shit."

"Nico."

"What?" he said sharply.

"You are so brave."

"What?" he said not so sharply. Weakly, in fact.

"That's the first time you've ever said that?"

Instead of answering, he just asked, "You don't hate me?"

"Nico, why would I hate you?"

"Because I like boys? Because I like-"

"That's no reason to hate someone."

"But-"

"Nico, I'm bisexual, why would I hate you for being gay?"

He didn't say anything. I watched new tears run down his cheeks. "Thank you," he said, finally.

"Come here," I told him. He got the message, scooting closer and resting his small head on my shoulder. I felt his tears slowly soak into my red pullover. This was the most intimate thing I've ever done. Every time I sucked in a breath, a got a nose full of thick, soft, wavy hair, but I couldn't have been more happy. Nico smelled like his soap, and the remnants of some cologne he must have put on the day before. I loved the way he smelled. He mumbled something into my shoulder.

"What was that?" I asked, spitting a few black hairs out of my mouth.

"I'm wondering how you're going to get out of that hole." He pulled his head off of my shoulder, and pushed his hair back from his forehead. He looked at me, but I guess he was focusing more on the hole that I was in, and not actually me. I suddenly felt a pang in my chest. I was missing the feeling of him against me.

So the conversation about our feelings was over. Which was fine. I was just glad that Nico had finally opened up. And besides, I was also wondering how I was supposed to get out of the hole.

"I think I'm going to have to just make the hole bigger."

"Really?"

"Yeah, there's no way I'll get out otherwise. Let's just make Leo's life even worse."

"Sounds good to me."

I laughed. "I knew that there was a reason I like you." He smiled. "Alright, you might want to step back, I'm about to just sort of thrash around."

"Can I take a video?"

"Ha ha ha."

"Pictures?"

"No! Now step back."

He did, and watched me with a bemused expression while I shook violently, trying to get the hole in the wall to widen. Eventually, I got it big enough to be able to slip back into my living room. "Victorious!" I crowed.

Nico clapped, and even whooped once or twice. Then he called, "Come back in here, Grace."

I successfully wiggled into his room without getting stuck. I put my fists into the air as a sign of victory.

"So," he said.

"Yeah?"

"We kind of ruined that coffee thing today, huh?"

"I did the ruining, mostly," I said.

"Taking all the credit, huh?"

"Oh yeah, I suck."

"I could argue with that," the corners of his mouth turned up. "But alright."

"So the coffee thing?" I asked.

"Yeah," he looked up at me. "I want to actually have coffee with you, Jason."

I smiled. "Alright."

"Tomorrow?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Alright," he said. "I'm going to go to bed."

"Goodnight," I told him.

His eyes flicked up to me, then down to the ground, then up again. Then he wrapped his skinny arms around me. I was a little surprised, but anything but upset about it. I wrapped my thicker arms around him, pulling him close to me. He rested his head on my shoulder again, and it took a lot of willpower to not plant a kiss into his glossy black hair. Suddenly this whole 'Get close to Nico' thing made perfect sense. I really, _really _liked the guy. He pulled his head off of my shoulder, and I let go of him.

"Goodnight," I said again. He had a smile on his face as he walked back to his bedroom. I had a smile on my face too, I was happy that I had put that smile on his face. The smile was wiped away as I turned to go back into my apartment, though. The hole was huge now. Leo was going to skin me alive.

* * *

_**A/N:**__ Yay, a new chapter! Some angst, but it all turned out alright. Stay tuned for a not-date coffee-date next time around. As always, I would really appreciate a fave or a review. Let me know what you guys like, don't like, or any ideas for what should happen in later chapters. Stay cool :~)_


	4. Chapter 4

I figured I would go get coffee with Nico right in between lunch and dinner, maybe around 5:00. This gave me plenty of time to beg Piper to come over and help me pick out my clothes. This was a feat, since we had to stay in my room and whisper the whole time. I didn't want Nico to know what I was wearing or anything. Really, I didn't want him to know how much I was stressing over this little meeting, because really, Piper, for the sixth time, it is _not_ a date.

"Its totally a date," Piper said, pulling another shirt out of my closet for consideration. She tossed it onto my bed, with the other options. "Look how much you're stressing about it!"

I fiddled with the edge of the shirt I was wearing, some ratty sweat-stained one from high school. This was definitely ruled out for not-date wear. "I'm just nervous that I'm going to drive him away," I finally said.

"You'll be fine. Just be yourself, Jason." She had her back to me, surveying my clothing choices. "Do you have anything that's not flannel?"

"I have plenty of stuff that's not flannel!"

"I'm just messing with you," she said, throwing a grin my way. "I think I got everything that's wearable." She waved a hand towards me and the bed. "Go ahead and choose. Unless you need my help with that too."

I got up from the bed, still toying with the edge of my shirt. I surveyed my clothing choices, and then-

"Piper, help me choose. I can't do it."

She sighed, "Jason, if I do that, you're probably going to look too nice."

I repressed the urge to gnaw on my lip. I was nervous.

"Maybe I want to look too nice." I grimaced, and I was glad my back was to Piper. I didn't want to see the face she was making at this point. That's when she sidled up really close to me.

"Is there a reason for that? A reason you want to look nice? Huh?"

She elbowed my side a few times. It kind of hurt. Piper has elbows of steel.

"I-"

She interrupted me before I could even say anything. "Are my suspicions correct?"

"Suspicions?" I asked.

"Its a date?" You could practically hear the shit-eating grin she was wearing. My face was slowly turning bright red. "So, you _want_ it to be a date?" I kept my mouth shut, which was apparently answer enough. She grinned, and knowing her, probably would have yelled something, but I clapped a hand over her mouth to stop that. Of course, she immediately licked it. Gross.

"Alright," I hissed out. We had been whispering pretty much this whole time, but I made sure to make this really quiet. Out of all the things I did not want Nico to hear as I was getting ready, this was on the very top of the list. "I like him, okay?"

She said something from behind my hand. I uncovered her mouth, and wiped my hand on my pants. It was clear she wasn't actually saying anything important from behind my hand, because then she jabbed me in the stomach with her fingers and cried out, "I knew it!"

"Be quiet!" I told her. I darted forward and jabbed HER in the stomach. As she rubbed her tummy, she shot me a pout. "Was it that obvious?" I asked.

"Nope. I just have supreme intuition." Piper is really good at figuring out how people are feeling, so she stopped the joking. There was also the fact that I was giving her my best I-will-wreck-you glare. That probably sent out the message that I wanted her to stop. She put a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it. I don't think he knows." She gave my shoulder a squeeze. "And if he _does_ know, he must be sticking around for a reason, huh? Stop stressing."

"Alright," I said. I pushed her hand off my shoulder. "So help me pick out something."

* * *

So about two hours later, Piper was cleared out of my apartment, and I headed down onto the street to go pick up Nico at his front door. I was really glad I had gotten Pipes to come help me out, because, not going to lie, I was looking very good. She had dressed me in a light blue button up, which apparently brought out my eyes. It was a little hot outside, so I had rolled up the sleeves past my elbows. Besides that, I was wearing a pair of jeans and the old beat up Clark's I had worn the previous day. Piper had put something in my hair that gave it that, hey, I just woke up look. I had also put on some cologne. I really wanted to impress the guy.

When Nico came to his door, he had either heard me getting ready with Piper, or he had picked up on the 'I really want this to be a date' vibe. He was wearing a white v-neck, a black suit jacket, and blue jeans, along with a pair of black boots. I almost felt a tear forming. His, as discovered from the night previous, _very_ soft black hair curled gently over his ears and along his neck. I wanted to bury my face in it. Instead, I just said, "'Sup."

"Hi there."

"You ready to go then?" I backed up, leading the way to the staircase, but Nico shook his head, and motioned me back towards him.

"As much as I would love to get coffee again," he said. I panicked for a second, thinking he was about to cancel. "I don't want to see Minos twice in two days." I avoided letting out a breath of relief. I assumed Minos was that grumpy guy who served us our coffee yesterday. As he said all this, he was rummaging around in his pockets. Then he looked up at me, showing me a set of car keys. To his BMW. I felt a smile coming on. "I was thinking we could go driving?"

"That's a great idea," I said. I stepped out of his way, and motioned towards the staircase.

As we headed down the stairs to his building's parking lot, and as I tried to avoid looking at his pert backside, I asked him, "So what made you change your mind about getting coffee."

"Minos is a dick." At this point, we had gotten to his car. "Also, I thought it would be a nice change of pace."

"Well, I certainly don't mind," I didn't even like cars that much, and I was impressed. Leo could have told you all about the stuff inside and outside the car, but all I cared about was the cool light up display on the dashboard, and the fact that the thing smelled like new car. The leather seats were nice, as well. Its always nice to have rich friends. That's a pro tip from me.

Before Nico pulled of the lot, he plugged up his phone to the car with an auxiliary cord, and put on some music for the drive. Then he started driving.

I was busy trying to look like I wasn't staring at his profile while he was driving, when I was shaken out of my stupor by Nico's music.

"What language is that?" I asked him.

"Italian."

"Oh."

He was humming along to the man on the stereo, lightly tapping his thumbs against the wheel to the beat.

"Do you understand what he's saying?" I asked.

"Yep."

"So you speak Italian?"

"Uh-huh. I lived in Italy until I was ten, and then Bianca and I moved here."

"That's really cool."

"I guess so."

"Do you speak much Italian now that you live in America?"

"Not as much as I would like to. I think in Italian most of the time, though."

"Huh."

We had been driving for about twenty minutes now, and we were outside of the city, driving down some back road. A lot of the drive was just us sitting in silence, but it wasn't awkward or anything. It was nice to just sit in the car with Nico, having him next to me. The only time anymore words that passed between us was when a car pulled directly in front of Nico, and he let out a string of words in Italian that probably would be considered very colorful if I understood a single word he said.

"Hey," I finally said, breaking the silence. He hummed in response, which I guess was an invitation to keep talking. "You know what I'm wondering?"

"What are you wondering, Jason?"

"How did we never meet before last month? It doesn't really make sense."

"Its a little weird," Nico said. "But I don't think there's any good explanation for it."

"You'd think our friends would have caused us to meet somehow. But you just finished your freshman year, right?"

"Yep."

"So I guess its not as much as a stretch that we didn't meet."

"You've been to my dad's house to see Hazel how many times?" he asked.

I shook my head, "Way too many times to not realize that Hazel had a brother. I guess I just assumed all the pictures of the little kid with a yamaka was your dad as a child or something."

"Its called a kippah," he said. "And my dad wasn't as cute of a kid as I was."

"Well," I smiled at him, even though he couldn't see it, since he was busy looking at the road. "I'm glad we met anyway. Even if it took longer than it should have."

"Do you want to get dinner with me?" He blurted out. That was kind of abrupt, but alright. I was working my way to asking him if he wanted to stay in and watch a movie with me tonight, but dinner sounded nice too. And maybe we could do both. He had stopped in the middle of the road, which couldn't have been safe, but there was no one else on the street, so it didn't really matter.

"Sure, that'd be cool."

He made a three point turn, and before driving back in the direction we came from, he gave me one of those rare smiles. "That's good. Because I already made reservations."

I laughed. "Did you plan this whole thing out?"

"Mhm."

"Where are we eating?"

"A steakhouse."

I ooh-ed. "Fancy."

"Argentum."

"Wh- Are you serious?" Argentum was one of the most expensive steakhouses in the city. One of the best, too, or so I've read. My wallet cried at the thought of going near it.

"Mhm."

"Their food costs more than my month's rent, Nico."

"That's an exaggeration. And besides, I've got dad's credit card, so it doesn't really matter how much it costs."

I had never heard a sentence more beautiful.

"I need to let you drive me around more often, man."

"Maybe if you give me gas money."

"Now my coffee thing just seems weak in comparison."

"Maybe I should come up with all the hangout ideas now," Nico said.

"Nope," I said. "I still have some good ideas."

"Like what?"

"They mostly involve you coming to apartment tonight, so we can watch some movies and drink cheap wine."

"You forget that I have my dad's money, Jason. We can drink expensive wine." He tapped the steering wheel. "You're twenty-one, right?"

"Yup, just since last month."

"Let's hope you don't get arrested for giving me alcohol."

"You only get caught drinking underage if you're a _schmuck_," I said, smiling. "Did I say that right?"

"No."

* * *

Dinner was nice. More than nice, to be completely honest. For one, the food was amazing. I had never had better steak, and with Nico's plastic, we got to get dessert. As a poor college student, this was the biggest deal in the world. The piece of chocolate cake cost almost ten dollars, but it was worth it. I learned a lot about Nico as we talked, so that was another plus. We talked about books, and movies, and music, and anything else that came up. One of those things was his father's upcoming wedding.

Apparently his father's fiancee required a lot of help for the wedding. Nico said it took three days for her to figure out what kind of flowers she wanted to lace the chuppah with. Nico was required to help with that. He said it wasn't too bad for the first two hours or so, but it got tiring very quickly. He also had to help his father find the perfect suit, and a matching kippah, and all these tallit look the same but which one should I wear? He had to plan out seating for the meal after the wedding. Nico said he had also gotten a nice suit, and I was hoping I would get to see it. I liked seeing him all dressed up. Besides all that stuff, there was also food tasting from the caterers. That one wasn't so bad.

The best part of the evening was when we got back to my apartment, though. We had gone to the liquor store, and I ran in and bought a bottle of wine that one of the workers suggested. (And put it on Nico's dad's card.) Nico wasn't allowed into the store because of his age, but he snatched the bottle from my hands as soon as I hopped back into his car.

"Looks good," he said.

"And expensive," I added.

"And expensive," he said, handing it back to me. He started the car, and began the drive back to our apartments. "Its not kosher, though."

"Shit. I didn't even think of that. I didn't know you did that whole thing," I resisted the urge to smack myself. That probably sounded very inconsiderate. "I can go back and get a different one."

He shrugged. "Its not a big deal, I'm not so serious about kosher anyway."

"I thought it was really strict, or something?"

"You just do what you can do."

"Oh. Alright."

"Yeah. So fuck it. I want to get drunk."

"Nothing wrong with that."

So that's exactly what we did when we got back to my apartment. I mean, first I popped in _The Fellowship of the Ring_, got some blankets, and put on a pair of sweatpants. I went to go get wineglasses, but Nico waved me off. He said we might as well just drink out of the bottle. Which was fine, because the only 'wineglasses' I had were plastic ones that say '_Over the hill!_' that Leo got me for my twenty-first.

We barely got through the first two hours before Nico was piss drunk. That sounds a little bad, but it was true. We had already gotten through the bottle of wine I (his dad) had bought, and had moved on to another bottle of wine I had sitting in my cupboard. I had bought it really cheap, and Nico made a really sour face when he drank, but it did the job. As the movie winded to an end, he had become a dozing mass that was leaving a small pool of drool on my shoulder. We had wanted to try to get through at least two parts of the trilogy, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen.

I shook him a little bit after I had turned off the movie. "Nico, wake up." In response to that, he groaned a little bit, nuzzling his face against me. "Nico, the movie's over. You need to get back to your apartment."

"No."

"What?"

"I'll spend the night," he said. He cupped his hand over my jaw. He scooted closer to me, so close he was almost sitting in my lap. His mouth was almost on my neck. Oh my _god_. He mumbled something under his breath, the warmth of it tickled the sensitive skin on my throat. If I was sober, I wouldn't have taken this so easily. If I didn't have any alcohol in my system, I would have panicked, run off, and sat in my bathroom for as long as it took for Nico to sober up and go off to his own apartment. Since I was not sober in any way, shape, or form, I was leaning into his touch, a smile practically splitting my face in half.

"What was that?" I asked. I didn't expect him to respond, or even register that I was talking to him. Partly because I was speaking almost directly into his hair, and because he was just really tipsy.

"Stay with me," he hummed against my throat.

"On Phyllis?" I managed to squeak out.

"Sí." There was some Italian I actually knew. _Geez_.

"Are you sure? You're drunk."

"Yeah." I wasn't sure which of those he was saying yes to.

"I think I'll sleep in my room, Nico."

He scooted away from me, which was a little disappointing, but it gave me a bit of thinking room that wasn't there when he was so close.

"I'm being way too forward," he mumbled. Or more like, he slurred out. He combed a hand through his curls.

"No, no, no," I said. I reached out to him, grabbing the hand that was carding through his hair. "I would definitely stay with you, but we aren't thinking straight."

"I'm never thinking straight," Nico said. He started laughing, putting his head back on my shoulder. Then I was laughing, and it got to the point where we were just rocking back and forth and not making any noises, just kind of falling over one another and wheezing. It was nice. It was a terrible joke, but I loved to laugh with Nico.

Somehow, amidst our snorting laughter and hilarity-induced clapping, I had ended up pinned underneath Nico, my head at a highly uncomfortable angle against one of arm rests, and one of my legs off of the couch, the other one on. Nico was just sprawled over the couch, his legs tangling with mine and his head on my shoulder again. And his mouth just almost against my neck. Again. _God_.

I was pretty sure Nico had planned ahead that we would get into this position. In fact, it was the only thing that would make getting in the position even plausible. He must have noticed how flustered I got earlier when we were in a similar situation about five minutes earlier. I thought that maybe he wasn't a inebriated as he seemed.

That thought immediately left my mind when he brought his head up from the crook of my shoulder. He had a smile on his face, and he let out what can only be described as a chuckle. Who knew that people actually chuckled?

His face hovered just over mine, and his hair hung around his face, just barely touching mine. I almost wanted to reach out and push it away, because it was a little ticklish, but I decided I didn't want to ruin the moment.

"I like you," he said. Then Nico kissed my cheek.

Then he ducked his head and laid it against my chest.

"Wait, what?" I asked. Not that I wasn't thrilled, or anything. That was just the last thing I ever expected for Nico di Angelo to ever do. Ever.

I asked "What?" a few more times before I realized that Nico had fallen asleep laying against my chest. I felt like I was in some crappy romantic comedy, which was not a bad feeling at all. It was actually really sweet. I liked having Nico so close to me, especially with his face all relaxed and peaceful, and his rumpled pajamas making him look like just any regular guy. The only bad feeling present was the one in my neck, from being in such an awkward position.

I brought my other leg back onto the couch, further entangling myself with Nico's spindly limbs. I moved my head so it was in a comfortable position against the armrest. Lastly, I reached a little bit and grabbed a blanket that was wadded up at the end of the couch, and put it over Nico as well as myself. I guess the last thing I actually did that night was wrap my arms around Nico.

And that is exactly how Leo found us the next morning.

Leo had the spare key to my apartment at the time, because I had expected him to come to my apartment when I wasn't home to come fill in the hole. Obviously, I was disappointed in that respect.

And of course, of all the days he could have shown up at my apartment, he chose the day after Nico stayed the night. He came in to my apartment, carrying a bag that had all his tools for filling in the hole. I was already awake, and had been awake for about an hour because I had to pee, like, _really_ badly. But I didn't want to move Nico and wake him up. He would be super hung over, and would probably hop right off of me as soon as he realized he was laying on too if me. I wanted to relish the feeling of him pressed flush against me for as long as possible. Leo was wearing a bandana as a headband and the most oil stained jeans I've ever seen in my life. He didn't crow something obnoxious as he waltzed in the door, which I was thankful for. I wasn't thankful for what he said after he set his bag on the ground and saw the position I was in with Nico.

He noticed I was awake, and wagged his eyebrows at me. "Am I interrupting something?" he crooned.

"Get out!" I hissed.

"That's a yes, then?" He was grinning. I decided I hated him.

"Get out!" I said again. "And take your bag with you!"

"I thought you wanted me to fix the wall?"

"Come back in a few hours," I said.

"Getting in as much lovin' as you can, casanova?"

I didn't reply to that. I just slammed my head against the couch's armrest and waited for him to get out of my apartment

As soon as Leo was out of sight, I let out a sigh of relief. I don't know what Nico would have done if someone saw him in his current position. Avoid me for a minimum of six weeks, probably. But now that Leo was gone, the problem was left to how I was going to wake up Nico.

After a few minutes of deliberating, I decided that I wouldn't wake up, but just kind of roll him off me. After a lot of wiggling and some sleep-mumbling on Nico's part, I managed to roll off the couch and sprint as quietly as possible to my bathroom.

Once I had finally relieved myself, I let Nico sleep for another hour or so before waking him up. After shaking him a few times, and a few whispers of, "Its half past twelve, Nico, get up." I got him to sit up and blink a few times.

"Stop yelling," he groaned.

"I was whispering," I said.

"Oh."

"I made breakfast. And Leo is coming in a few hours to finally fix that wall, just letting you know."

"Does that mean I'm going to have to come to your front door to say hi, now?"

"We have to interact like normal people now, yeah."

He let out a huff of air, and then stood up, stretching his back and yawning. "My head is killing me," he said, after his yawn.

"You drank a lot last night," I yawned myself, covering up my mouth. I reached towards him to brush a stray lock of hair behind his ear. He jolted backwards.

"What are you doing?"

"I-"

"Please don't touch me," he said. I told him sorry, and mentally punched myself. I don't know how I could have forgotten, but of course Nico didn't like to be touched. His actions while inebriated had sort of proved that wrong, but it seemed like he didn't remember much of anything about the night before. Which was fine. It didn't help me much though, because I wanted to hold him again like I did last night. I wanted him to kiss me again. Oh well.

"You said you made breakfast?" he asked.

"I stuck some waffles in the toaster, so yes."

He laughed at that, and then winced. When I say laugh, I guess I mean he just sort of blew a puff of air out of his nose in an amused fashion. But even that must have hurt his head. Poor guy.

"I'll have some of those, I guess," he rubbed his temple. "But please don't talk."

I nodded, and went into the kitchen. I grabbed the waffles I had stuck in the toaster, and brought them to Nico on the couch. We ate quietly for a minute or so, our munching the only thing filling up the silence. Then Nico broke his own rule when he asked me,

"So, what are you planning on doing today?"

I shrugged, "Helping Leo with the wall, I guess. What about you?"

"Dinner with my future stepmother and her mom," he said. "So that's gonna suck. Then movie night with Hazel and Frank."

"Do you know what you're going to watch?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

I chewed a bite of waffle thoughtfully. "Just wondering."

"Don't talk with food in your mouth," he said, pointing his fork at me. "You're nasty." I made a point to chew very loudly and openly after he said that, leaning towards him so he could get a good look at the food in my mouth. He _eww_'d at that, shaking his head. "Well, I was going to ask you something, but now I won't."

"No, ask me!"

"I'm too distracted by the waffle rolling around in your mouth."

I swallowed what was in my mouth. "Ask me," I said.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to come to movie night with me."

I raised my eyebrows. "But won't you be hanging out with Hazel?"

"And Frank. Hazel invited me, but she'll probably rather do whatever with Frank."

"I'll go, then. Do I need to text Hazel and see if I can go?"

"No, I can do that. I wish you could come with me to dinner with Persephone and her mom."

"Her name is seriously Persephone?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh?"

"That's cool! Is she really that bad? You talk about her like she's some evil stepmother. And she isn't even a regular stepmother yet."

"She's nice enough. Her mom is the worst, though."

"What does she do that's so terrible?"

"She always says I'm too scrawny."

"You _are_ pretty scrawny, man."

"Shut up."

AAAAAAAAAAAA

Leo swore. "How did this hole get so big?" I had gotten used to it, but I guess it was a lot bigger than it was the last time Leo got a good look at it.

"I might have tried to crawl through it."

"Stupid."

I laughed, "I guess it wasn't the smartest thing to do."

"Yeah," he crossed his arms. "Well anyway, I can still fix it. You'll need to paint your walls to cover up the new plaster, though. Ask your landlord if that's alright."

"I don't want to talk to my landlord," I whined.

"Its not _my_ fault you got a hole in your wall!"

"Except it _totally_ is."

"Pfft."

"Pssh."

He whacked me with a paint stirrer. "Whatever. Come help me with this."

As we put up the new drywall Leo asked me a question. I didn't hear it.

"What was that?"

"How is the prince of darkness doing?"

"Who is _that_?" I asked.

"Nico. Duh."

"Hey, don't make fun of him."

"Yeah, whatever."

I frowned at him. "Well, he's doing fine. He's getting dinner with his dad's fiancee tonight, and then we're going to go see a movie with Frank and Hazel."

"So are you guys dating or something? Also, why wasn't I invited?"

"Probably because the last time you saw Frank, you put like three times the regular milk into the _soy_ milkshake you made him."

"Oh, yeah. That was funny," he started laughing to himself. "He should have known better than to drink it. Anyway, you didn't answer my question."

"You're an asshole. And, no, we aren't dating."

"You got that right," he said. "And if you aren't together, then what was that I saw this morning?"

I felt my face quickly turn red. "Nothing."

"It sure looked like something."

"Well, we were drinking last night and-"

"You scored?!"

"_NO_! No! We just fell asleep on each other"

"That's it?"

"Well, he kissed me on the cheek."

"Jason Grace, you man eater!"

"I am not! He was drunk, and it didn't mean anything."

"So you like him?" I nodded. "I was just double checking. Piper already told me." I gasped. Before I could say something not very nice about Piper, Leo said, "And the fact that he did it while he was drunk makes it, like, ten times more legit. Remember that time when we all went to that party Percy and Grover's frat threw, and I was all clingy on Frank?"

"Really? Because that's what I was thinking. It would be-" I stopped. "Wait. You like Frank?"

Leo stiffened. And then laughed nervously. "Who ever said that?"

"You did. Just now."

"Shit. Don't tell anyone that."

"I would never do that, Leo. I thought you liked Hazel, though?"

He shrugged. Apparently the wall had become very interesting, because he had his eyes fixed on it. "I like both of them, I guess."

"Are you going to do anything about it?"

"Nope."

I punched him in the arm. "I guess we know why you wanted to come to movie night."

He punched me back. "Quit it!"

"Frank and Leo and Hazel sitting in a tree," I sang. "K-I-"

He groaned. "Stop!"

* * *

We had movie night in Nico's apartment. Frank brought the first two _Harry Potter_ movies, so we watched those. I had never read the books, but the rest of them had, so while they talked about the movie, I was just thanking whichever gods were listening for the fact that Nico had a couch that couldn't really fit four people. I had an excuse to be close to him.

Although Nico didn't remember kissing me or falling asleep on top of me, he had remembered all the cuddling, it seemed. He leaned his head against my chest. My arm was across the back, so it was almost like I had it around him, except it was also half-way around Frank. So not as romantic as it could have been. I'm not so sure Nico wanted it to be romantic, though. He was always holding Hazel's hand and kissing her cheek, so maybe he was just the kind of guy that was touchy once he got close to someone. I liked to think that we were close.

Once the two movies were over, and Frank and Hazel had cleared out, Nico turned to me.

"Do you want to watch the next one?"

"Sure. I'll go get some more popcorn."

So once I had gotten the snack, I went back to the couch. Nico grabbed the bowl from me and stuffed some popcorn into his mouth.

"So how was your dinner with Persephone?"

He put up a finger, motioning for me to wait. He chewed his popcorn up, then swallowed. "Her mom made me have three helpings of spaghetti, and kept pinching my arm and telling me to keep eating, because I'm 'too scrawny!'. I feel like I'm gonna barf."

"But you're still eating popcorn?"

"Yep." He started playing the movie. "I see that Leo fixed the wall. Not bad."

"Yeah. It looks so good because I helped," I said, grinning. "How did you like me coming to your front door with snacks instead of tossing them through the door?"

"It was a nice change of pace. I'll miss crawling into your apartment to steal sodas, though."

"You didn't steal them, you always asked for them."

"Yeah, but I sounded cooler when I said I stole them."

"There's no one here to think you're cool. I already know you're a loser."

"That's not very nice," he said. He gave me a weird look. "What are you doing?"

I had been stretching my arms while we were talking. Above my head, in front of me, to the side. It might have been a subtle hint that I wanted to put my arm around Nico. He must have just noticed it. "Stretching," I said.

He snorted. "If you want to put your arm around me, just do it."

So I did.

"You know," he whispered, nuzzling into my chest. "You're not very subtle."

"Neither are you," I whispered back.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I didn't answer. I just pulled him closer to me. He didn't press me.

* * *

_**A/N:**_ **_Hey everyone! Sorry this took so long to get out, band camp is really kicking my butt. A few things: I have put into my story the most important headcanon in the world, which is a Jewish Nico di Angelo. Everyone strap in and be prepared for Jason to have no idea what's going on at a nissu'in. I invite everyone to join me in this headcanon. Seriously. I need someone to talk about it with. _**

**_Also, shout out to my friend Claire who gave me so many ideas for this chapter, and all the chapters previous. You rock, babe. ilysm._**  
**_And last thing: sorry for the (unrequited) Frazleo. I couldn't resist._**  
**_As always, thank you so much for reading! A kudos and a comment would be much appreciated! See you guys for the next chapter B~)_**


	5. Chapter 5

Months passed.

My senior year had begun, and there was a lot to do. Lots of papers to write, notes to

study, futures to worry about. I saw a lot less of my friends, except on the weekends. For the most part, at least. In the case of Nico, I saw him way less than anyone else. I figured out that the previous two semesters, he had worked extremely hard to pass all the pre-requisite classes for a pre-med major. So, this year, he was taking even more chemistry and math classes than before. Even Leo, who was getting a degree in engineering, thought it was a bit much.

If it tells you how busy the both of us were, the first time we saw each other for more than an hour or so was in November, during Thanksgiving break.

Of course, before I spent any time with Nico, I had to spend time with my sister. Thalia was five years older than me, and ever since she graduated college, she had been journeying around the North American continent on a father-funded journey of self discovery. Occasionally she would pop in to say hello and eat all of the food I had on hand.

So that's how one freezing November night, we were perched on my couch, watching some late night paid programming and ignoring it, for the most part. I was sitting, while she was laying down, her feet in my lap. We had been talking for the last few hours, but at the moment, she was busy shoveling large amounts of peanut butter into her mouth with a spoon. With a big glob of it in her mouth, she said,

"So. What's new, little bro?"

"That's disgusting," I said. In regard to the peanut butter.

"You're disgusting," she retorted.

"You are."

She put her stockinged feet in my face, "You are _so _disgusting," she said. I did my best to crane my head upwards to avoid the touch of her feet.

"Nothing is more disgusting than your smelly feet."

She put her feet down, and grinned at me. "That's very true. And I asked you a question!"

I fiddled with the strings on my sweatshirt. "I've been working on my senior thesis and trying to find a job for when I graduate. And hanging out with friends. That's about it."

"Good luck on your thesis and all that," she said. "But that's not all. You're hiding something."

"I am not!"

"You've been gnawing your lip and running your tongue over your scar, and now you're yanking on your hoodie strings," she accused. "You're nervous about something. What is it?"

"Thal, its nothing."

"D'you want me to stick my feet on you again?"

I laid an arm across her shins. I wasn't going to risk experiencing that again. Then I sighed. "There's a guy." I shrugged. "Its not a big deal."

"Because you just said that, it totally is." She leaned forward. "What's his name?"

"You don't know him, but Nico di Angelo," I said.

"Wait, di Angelo? I know him," she said. "I was friends with his sister, remember?"

"Am I the only person who didn't know him from before?"

"Probably, but that's beside the point. I didn't know you liked the brooding type, Jayce," she teased me.

"He doesn't brood." I crossed my arms.

"He totally does."

"Okay," I shrugged. "Maybe he broods a little bit. But not as much as he did when I met him in June."

"So you've known him for..." she paused, counting on her fingers. "Six months?"

"Yep."

With that, she punched my arm. "And you haven't made a move yet?!"

I rubbed the spot she had hit. My sister could really pack a punch. "I don't think he likes me back."

Thalia gasped. "Who wouldn't love my little baby brother?" She kicked her legs out.

"Try to keep it down," I said. "He's in the next apartment over."

She grinned. "Whoops."

* * *

Nico asked me about it the next day. Or night, really. He had invited me over to celebrate one of the nights of Hanukkah with me. I was all for it, especially since the majority of what I knew about the holiday came from Rugrats. It would be an educational experience, as well as a chance to catch up with Nico.

But, unfortunately for my scholarly mind, Nico was not very observant of the holiday. His landlord said that candles were a fire hazard, so Nico had an electric menorah ("Chanukiah," he said.") that he had already switched on the third 'candle' for, and presented me with the food he had for the evening.

Grilled cheese, these pancake looking things, and some donuts from a shop down the street.

"Is this real life Hanukkah food?" I asked. I honestly didn't know.

Nico grimaced. "Sort of. I tried my best. I got some grilled cheese, latkes, and jelly donuts, and that's sort of alright."

"Well, it looks good to me."

"That's because you don't know any better," Nico said. "These latkes were microwaveable. They're going to be awful."

"I've had Piper's cooking. I think I can handle store bought Jewish cuisine."

"You better. I paid like six dollars for the box," he said, taking a bite out of the grilled cheese.

While he chewed his food, I propped my elbow on his table. "I'm just wondering why you're not celebrating with your family tonight."

"Dad is working late tonight," he said. "I don't really feel comfortable just celebrating with Persephone."

"I'm sure she would have really liked that," I said. "Plus, she can probably make actual latkes."

"I'd rather spend the night with you." He shrugged. "She was fine with it."

"Well, if she's fine with it, its cool, I guess." I took a bite out of one of the latkes Nico had not really made. It was pretty good. "This is way better than anything else I would have done tonight."

"Like hanging out with that girl in your apartment?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Girl?"

"I heard her laughing and yelling and stuff last night." Nico looked down at his feet. "I'm prying."

I laughed. "Dude, that was my sister."

"Oh." He laughed too. It sounded a little nervous. "I thought you had a girlfriend or something."

"Nope."

This would have been a really good time to tell Nico how I really felt. Since it had happened back in July, I had been thinking about that kiss I had gotten from Nico.

That tells you how bad I had it for him. I had been thinking about a drunken kiss on the cheek for almost six months. I had never acted on the feelings I had, though. I just didn't want to drive him away with unwanted contact. I was scared he would shut me out if I was too forward.

Since the kiss, the most we had done was basically just sitting really close together on a couch. I was almost aching for more. We were just finishing up the little dinner Nico had made up, and our hands were laying across the table, almost touching.

My eyes flicked up towards Nico. He was tapping away on his phone with one hand. The other was stretched out, palm up. Now, maybe I can be a little oblivious sometimes, but even I knew that was an invitation. I stretched my arm forward a little, and brushed my fingers over his. He smiled down at his phone screen. I smiled too. I took his hand into my own.

And that was a nice end to my first Hanukkah.

* * *

The worst thing is, though, that after the hand holding in November, nothing like it really happened afterwards. Too much studying for midterms, too much panicking over what I would write about for my senior thesis.

Once I had decided what to write my paper about, Sophocles' Theory of State, in case any of you were wondering, I decided it was time to celebrate. I had just spent all of winter break with the rest of my friends, lots of movie nights with Pipes and Leo, and dinners out with the whole gang. There were also lots of study sessions with Reyna. Lots of elbowing Leo extremely hard in the side whenever Frank or Hazel were around. There was a distinct lack of Nico in my life during those couple of weeks. Now it was January, and I hadn't seen him for almost a month.

Its just that he was never in his apartment when I knocked against the wall to get his attention. I never saw him around. I would have texted him, but I didn't have his number. That might sound weird. I just never needed his number, since he was always in the next room if I needed him.

One person whose number I did have was Hazel's. I texted her to ask if I could come over. She said yes. Or more like, she texted back something along the lines of,

"Ya come on over i have hot choc :)))".

I pulled on my coat and started the trek towards Hazel and Nico's dad's house. After a long walk, a few almost-collisions with tourists stopped on the sidewalk, and a very close call with a taxi cab, I got to the house. When I rang the door, though, it wasn't Hazel who answered the door.

It was a very bored, stylishly dressed, almost half a foot taller Nico di Angelo. Except with a little stubble. It was his dad, then.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Oh," I said. "Hi, I'm Jason Grace." I waved my hand, then immediately regretted it. It seemed really weak. I sort of winced to myself.

"Nico's friend?" He gave me a once over, and raised his eyebrows in a very Nico-like way. "Interesting. Why are you here?"

"I'm here to see Hazel." That's when Hazel popped up behind her dad's shoulder. She grinned.

"Hi Jason," she put her hand on her dad's shoulder. "Dad, I can take it from here."

Her dad stepped out from the doorway. "Alright." He ran a hand over Hazel's hair. "I'm in my office if you need me."

"Okay," she said. "Your socks are mismatched."

He looked down at his feet. And shrugged. He headed down the hallway to his office.

After Hazel had handed me the hot chocolate she had just made, and sat me down on her dad's fancy black leather couch. She rested her feet on the coffee table that was set in front of the couch.

She sipped her chocolate, and raised her eyebrows at me through the steam billowing up from her mug.

"What?" I asked. "Don't give me that look."

She waggled her eyebrows. "What look?" She laughed. Then she cursed, because of the steamy chocolate that came out of her nose.

"That one." I was grinning.

Hazel tucked her feet underneath her. She gave me a serious look, tilting her head slightly.

"Now," she said. "I know that you have come in the past just to have my delicious hot chocolate, but that is obviously not the case right now." I shrugged. "Yeah, I knew it. Spill."

I frowned. "Its about Nico."

She leaned close to me. "What about Nico?"

"Um," I squirmed in my seat. "I haven't heard from him recently. He hasn't been responding to me calling him lately."

"Probably because he's in Italy."

I almost choked on my hot chocolate. "What?"

Hazel scrunched her eyes close, and shook her head. "You didn't know he was in Venice? He's visiting his grandparents."

"He didn't tell me!"

She shook her head again. I was beginning to feel stupid, and I didn't even know why. "No, I know he told you. Remember, when you two celebrated Hanukkah together? He said he told you then."

That's when the mug in my hands became very interesting. I kept my eyes on it, avoiding Hazel's judging gaze. Because she was definitely judging. I tapped my feet nervously.

"I might have been a little bit distracted that night."

Hazel's voice had a tone that I really did not like when she basically crooned out, "What were you distracted by Jason?"

"Well, me and my brother-"

"Yes?"

I flicked my eyes up from my mug to glare at her. "At least let me finish! We were holding hands and I was distracted."

She punched me. "You _just _held his hand?"

"Ow!" I put my hand over the spot she punched, on my chest. For a girl so tin, she could really pack a punch. "Why does it matter?"

"Um," she tapped her hands against her thighs. "Because you like him so much and you should have done something more than that?"

"Like what?"

Hazel let out a huff of air, like she had been holding it in or something. I later learned that it was a sigh of relief, that I had actually bought such a sorry excuse. She shrugged.

"I don't even know if Nico would want to do that with me," I ran a hand through the front of my hair. I had been letting it grow out a little bit over the winter. "Do you know anything about his feelings for me?" I paused for a minute. "I mean, if they even exist."

"Nope," Hazel said. "I don't know anything."

"Are you sure?"

Hazel let out a noise of frustration. "I've been sworn into secrecy."

"Wait," I was grinning. "So that means-"

"Nothing. I didn't say anything."

"You didn't, but I inferred. Hazel, does he like me?"

She groaned. "Nico is going to kill me." She banged her head against the back of the couch, apparently resigning herself to her fate. "Yeah. How could you not tell?"

I bounced a little bit in my seat. I put my mug of hot chocolate on the coffee table that was in front of us. "You're sure?"

"Yeah. Why else would he always want to be close to you and hold your hand or whatever?"

I shrugged. "I figured he was just always affectionate when he got to know people."

"Jason, it took me almost a year and a half to get that boy to let me hug him regularly. You're the one that's the golden retriever in human form."

I laughed. "Is that what you really think of me?"

"Yeah." She leaned her head against my shoulder. Her frizzy curls were very close to going up my nose, so I tried to not breath very hard. I wasn't sure how Frank could do this all the time and not sneeze on her head. "Nico is going to skin me."

I put an arm around her shoulder. "No he won't. He loves you."

She sighed. "Yeah." She sipped the last bit of her hot chocolate. "He loves you too."

* * *

When Nico finally got back from Italy, I was seriously doubting what Hazel said. Nico was avoiding me.

And to make it worse, he wasn't even being subtle about it. I could hear him bustling around his apartment, making food, or marathoning stuff on Netflix at inappropriate times at night. But whenever I knocked on our shared wall to invite him over for movie night, or to ask if he wanted to play Super Smash Bros., he would just keep going about his business, not responding. He would even do it if I was at his front door. And I still didn't have his number. Otherwise, I would have called, and probably gotten ignored in that way too. At least I would be able to leave a few messages, maybe make him feel a little bit terrible about it.

This all went on for about three weeks. Almost two months without Nico di Angelo in my life. I managed fine without him before, but now I almost couldn't do it. I mean, I got about my studies fine. My senior thesis was coming along nicely, and I was getting honor roll grades in all of my other classes. I was still hanging out with all of my friends, and maybe even going to a party or two. But there was always something missing. Whenever I was out with Percy, watching the guy do something pointless like trying to eat a whole pizza by himself, there was always something missing. I would always rather be with Nico somewhere, preferably at one of our apartments, in our pajamas. We could still be eating pizza, of course. He would hike up the cuffs of his pajama pants, because they were always too long, and put down his pizza, leaning in very close.

'Jason,' he would say. 'I missed you so much. I thought about you all the time.' He would plant a lingering kiss on my neck. '_All _the time,' he would emphasize. Holy shit.

Hey, it was my fantasy. That doesn't mean it has to be realistic.

And then he would kiss me on the lips, and it would be everything I ever wanted. His mouth would taste like pizza and that weird aftertaste you get after drinking a soda, but I would love it anyway.

"Dude," I was shaken out of my daydreaming by Percy's voice. "What are you staring at?"

I looked over at him. There was a string of cheese hanging from his chin. I resisted the urge to wipe it off. "I wasn't staring. I was just thinking."

"'Bout what?"

"Nico."

Percy snorted. "Why?"

I crossed my arms. "Because he's my friend, and he's been ignoring me for almost a month now."

"Dude, he always does that avoiding thing."

"Maybe for you," I said. I shrugged. "He's always been around the past couple of months, and now he's not. I don't like it."

Percy raised his eyebrows. I mean, you could barely tell he was doing anything beneath the curtain of his hair, since his bangs were getting really shaggy. He desperately needed a haircut. "Do you have a crush on the kid or something?"

I shrugged. He grimaced.

"Man, that's icky."

"Icky?"

"Yeah, Jason, its really icky. He's like my brother!"

"Why would it matter to me what you think of him? I think he's cute." I scratched my head. "And besides, you probably haven't talked to him since Ms. Valdez's party."

"Yeah, but we have a bond. He used to like me, you know."

"Man, that's icky."

Percy grinned. "Whatever, dude. It was when we were teenagers, so I guess it doesn't really matter anymore. But maybe you should take a few lessons from me in seducing di Angelos."

"I think I'll pass."

"Okay. Step one: be Percy Jackson."

"Stop."

"Step two: don't be Jason Grace."

I laughed. "Quit it."

"Alright. But if you really want my advice-"

"I don't."

He kept going like I hadn't interrupted him. "-You should like, camp out in front of his door or something. He can't avoid you then."

"He has a fire escape."

"Would he resort to that, though?"

"Probably not."

Percy took a huge bite out of his pizza. "Exactly." He chewed his pizza thoughtfully. "What time is it?"

I checked my phone. "Like, two in the morning."

He almost gagged on his pizza. "Dude, I have a seven o'clock class tomorrow. Get out of my house."

"Nice one, Sherlock." I pulled on my coat. "Text me about that party on Friday, alright?"

"Okay. Leave."

I laughed. "Bye."

It wasn't that far of a walk from Percy's fraternity's house to my apartment building, maybe fifteen minutes, but it wasn't very pleasant when it was two in the morning, with limited street lighting, and when it was almost fifteen degrees below freezing. I half walked-half ran home as fast as I could.

When I got home, I stood huffing and puffing in my entranceway for a minute, jogging in place and rubbing my hands together to get a little feeling back into my body. I shed my coat, and threw it on the floor. I didn't feel like going to bed just yet, so I walked over to the television in my living room. I turned it on, and then headed into my bedroom to take off my clothes. Now that I had gotten the feeling back into my extremities, I was getting really hot. My landlord kept the building at seventy degrees Fahrenheit during the winter, so it was always pretty steamy in my apartment. I headed back into my living room and flopped down onto Phyllis in just my boxers and a pair of socks.

I picked up my remote, and did a little bit of channel surfing. Eventually, I decided to leave it on some cartoons. The old Mythomagic cartoon was playing. I frowned. Nico would have probably really liked it. I kept it on the channel. Maybe I even liked the show. I put the volume up pretty high, as some sort of peace offering towards Nico.

I did the same thing for a few episodes, until I heard loud knocking on my door, around four in the morning. I turned the volume down, seriously hoping it wasn't my landlord who was knocking. He could get really antsy about stuff like music playing too loud.

It wasn't my landlord, though. It was Nico.

He was wearing his pajamas, so he actually walked down onto the street and into my building in the baggiest flannel pants you can imagine, along with a band tee shirt for some group I didn't recognize. In fifteen degree weather. With no coat. I was impressed.

Nico didn't look very impressed, though. He had a big frown, his eyebrows lowered in apparent rage. His hair was in a little bun near the top of his head. His angry expression eased a little bit when he saw me answer the door in nothing but my underwear, he looked a little surprised, but the frown returned almost as soon as it left.

"Hi," I said. "How did you know I was awake."

"Well, I don't know," Nico pushed past me, going into my apartment. "Maybe because you've been watching Mythomagic TV show on the highest volume possible for at least two hours at four in the fucking morning." He walked over to the television, and flipped it off.

"Hey, I was watching that."

"You know the show is totally inaccurate to the actual card game, right? You're insulting me by watching it." He plopped himself down on my couch.

Instead of responding to that, I said, "Why have you been ignoring me for almost two months?"

He gave me a look that was clearly saying 'You have GOT to be kidding me'.

"You're the one that's been ignoring me!"

"Nico, you're the one that went to Italy without telling me."

"I told you! You weren't paying attention to me!" At this point he was standing up. With every word, his hands were just flying all over the place. That was how I knew he was really upset.

"That's not true, I was-"

"You said you would never leave me alone," he said quietly.

"I didn't!" He was about to say something, but I held up my hand for him to stop. "Nico, I wasn't ignoring you, or avoiding you, or anything. I was working on my senior thesis, and studying for midterms, and preparing for whatever is going to happen after I graduate. And even now, I'm super busy on my thesis. I swear, I wasn't trying to ignore you! I was just busy!"

"Am I supposed to believe that?!"

"Yes! Because its true! Why would I ever want to leave you alone, Nico? I love-" I stopped myself. "I love having you around."

He put his hands by his side, and gave me a weak smile. "I love having you around, too."

"So you're not mad at me? Nico?"

He shook his head. "I'm not mad, Jason." He pulled at the collar of his shirt, looking down at his feet. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," I said. "You know, I had to go to Hazel to figure out that you were in Italy."

I went over by Nico and sat on my couch. He followed suit, but he sat away from me, not in his usual position. His usual position, of course, was leaning against my chest or shoulder. I wish he would, though. I was missing his touch.

"Jason, I told you I was going when I had you over for shitty Hanukkah."

"You Hanukkah wasn't shitty!" I laughed. "And I guess I didn't really hear. I was sort of distracted."

Nico had a sly smile playing over his lips. "Distracted by what?"

I smiled, if only to try and hide my embarrassment. I'm pretty sure my face was bright red during this whole portion of conversation. "You're a really good hand holder."

His smile turned into a grin. It was the most beautiful thing I had seen in almost two months.

"That's good," he said. "Because I really like holding your hand."

And that's exactly what he did.

We just sat there for a few minutes, in silence. It was nice. He was sitting close to me, and our hands were a little sweaty, but it was still nice. His were probably sweaty because of the heat of my apartment. My hands were sweaty because of how nervous I was. I felt like I was in high school or something, with all the butterflies in my stomach to go along with it.

"Hey, Nico?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm kind of sleepy."

"Alright. So do you want me to go?"

"If you want. Take my coat, though, you'll freeze."

"Then you'll freeze without your coat," he said, letting go of my hand, and heading towards the door.

"I'll live. Just get it back to me soon-ish."

"Okay," he almost walked out the door before saying, "Nice duckie boxers, by the way."

I laughed. "Thanks."

"Sweet dreams." he said, heading out the door.

* * *

I banged my fist against the wall.

"Nico!" I called. "I hope you're ready, I'm coming over!"

It was now May, the week before I graduated. I was aiming on having a last hoorah before my college days were over and I had to have some sort of responsibility. Percy's fraternity was having an end-of-the-semester party, and there was free alcohol, since one of the brother's father owned a liquor store, so it seemed like a good choice for a final fling.

I half-jogged out of my apartment and down onto the street, keeping a hand on the fake laurels in my hair to make sure they wouldn't fall out. I would have to text Piper to get her to bring some hair pins so I could stop worrying about them falling off during the party. I probably should have mentioned, the party Percy was throwing was a toga party, so I was currently heading into Nico's apartment building wearing a modified bedsheet and fake laurels I had gotten from a craft store that was a few blocks away. I think the idea came up just so Percy could cover himself in oil and wear a leather kilt, but that's just me. Not that anyone would really mind that, because the guy really did look good without a shirt on, but that's beside the point.

When I got to Nico's apartment, and got him to come outside, I was greeted by a Roman god. No, really, I was. Before I could say anything, Nico said, "I was Hades for Halloween during high school, don't say anything." He crossed his arms. "Technically this is a chiton, do you think it'll be okay for a toga party?"

I just laughed. "Dude, you look awesome, don't worry about it. Let's go." He did look really awesome. His toga, or chiton, whatever, was black, and it was fastened with a little skull pin at the shoulder. Honestly, what a dork. He also had this cloak thing, which came down to around his knees. He had a crown of laurels, too.

"You look good, too." Nico locked his apartment door, and I began to lead the way to Percy's fraternity house. It wasn't too long of a walk, and the weather was nice, and Nico kept bumping into me as we strolled along, so it wasn't that bad. I just felt a little silly walking down the street wearing a bedsheet.

"You know," Nico said, after a few minutes of walking. "The Nikes kind of ruin the whole Roman look."

"I didn't have any Jesus sandals, sue me."

Nico laughed. "Jesus sandals?"

"Yeah. Or gladiator shoes, whatever."

"Got it." Nico reached up and adjusted my laurels. They had fallen slightly to the right. "I guess the Nikes will make you fit in with all the douchey frat guys."

"Maybe I am the goddess Nike. You never know."

He laughed. "How do you even know who she is?"

"Hey, I'm not totally ignorant," I said. We were on the front stoop of the house. The party was already in full swing, it being around eight o' clock. There we already a few people in Roman garb littering around the lawn, holding red solo cups, which sort of ruined the whole vibe. The muffled dance music filtering through the front door also damaged the Hellenic effect. "My original major was Classics, you know."

Nico leaned against the railing that lined the stoop. "Really? Why'd you drop it?"

"My dad didn't approve." I shrugged. "After about eight years of never talking to me, he decided he got a say in what I would do with my life."

"That's terrible."

"I guess. He _is _the one paying my tuition, so he does have some say."

"Its still terrible. You should be able to do what you want."

"Oh well. Political science wasn't that bad of a major." I pulled open the front door, and the muffled dance music hit us at full volume. "That's enough seriousness for the evening. Let's go have a good time."

We walked through the door, and were greeted by a grinning Percy Jackson.

"Welcome! Looking good, guys." He put an arm around Nico. Nico looked down at his feet and smiled. I tried not to let it bother me. It bothered me a lot. "Drinks are in the next room. The whole gang is already here, I think in the kitchen. I'll swing by later."

Percy walked off to talk to one of his brothers. He locked eyes with me and grinned. I frowned, put _my_ arm around Nico, and stalked off towards the booze. The whole thing about Nico liking Percy when they were kids hadn't bothered me at first, but suddenly it did.

They had a keg set up on a card table. I filled up a cup for Nico, and then one for me. Nico didn't really like beer, but he sipped at it anyway.

As we squeezed through the crowd, on our way to the kitchen to our friends, Nico yelled at me over the loud music,

"What was with that arm thing?"

"What?"

"After Percy talked to us."

"Oh." If I told Nico the truth, I would basically be confessing my feelings for him, so I just yelled, "I'll tell you later!"

All of our friends were some form of leaning against or sitting on the kitchen counter, with the exception of Annabeth, who wasn't there.

"Hi guys," I said, wedging myself between Piper and Hazel so I could lean against the counter. Nico stood on the other side of Hazel. "Where's Annabeth?"

"Working on some speech she's giving when she gets back to Cali," Piper said. "Her dad is throwing some party since she's summa cum laude in this years class, or whatever. She's supposed to speak at it."

I sipped on my beer. "That sounds awful."

Reyna, who was sitting over by Frank, barked out a laugh. "I think you're just jealous."

"Nah, I'm fine with being average."

Leo lifted up his plastic cup in a toast. "I'll drink to that!" In the course to put the cup to his lips, he got most of his drink on Frank's toga. "Whoops."

Frank rubbed at the stain with his fingers. "Thanks, Leo." He sighed. "I don't see how you all are taking graduation so calmly. I'm getting stressed just thinking about my senior year."

Reyna shrugged. "Its not that bad. At least, as long as you've got plans for what you're going to be doing next." She brandished her cup towards me. "Speaking of that, Jason, have you gotten anything figured out yet?"

I winced. "I've applied to a bunch of places, but there's not much you can do with a poli-sci degree. Maybe I'll go to grad school."

"Will you do it here?" Piper asked.

"Maybe. It would be nice to stick around here for a little bit longer. There's some things I don't want to say goodbye to just yet." I looked at Nico as I said this, wanting him to look up so I could catch his eye. He did look up, and I smiled at him. I wanted him to know that he was what I didn't want to say goodbye to.

Hazel caught me in the act, and elbowed my arm. She was smiling almost as hard as I was. "I would stay here for grad school," she said. "Just so I could go the Big House for a few more years."

Leo groaned. "Now I want a burger. You suck, Hazel."

The Big House was a sort of hole in the wall restaurant that a lot of the college students went to. They did have pretty killer burgers.

"You could come with me and Frank, we're going after the party for some french fries."

Leo grinned. "Sure, as long as Frank is paying."

* * *

And then suddenly, I had a degree. And it was like, officially, I'm an adult. And I had no idea what to do.

The ceremony was alright. It was kind of boring, since none of my friends majored in political sciences and we had to sit with our majors, so I had no one to whisper to while the speaker droned on and on about how these would be the years we would look back on most fondly, and they were just a stepping stone, and blah blah blah.

About four hours later, after all the necessary pictures were taken with friends in cap and gown, and Thalia messed up my carefully combed hair at least ten times, and once I had gone through the smaller graduation ceremony that was just for political science majors, I was heading back to my apartment to change out of my dress clothes into something more comfortable. I was going to go out with my friends later. So basically, I was just going to go throw my cap and gown on the floor and put on some fresh deodorant. Thalia had been staying in my apartment for the past two days, but she had gone off with Reyna and Piper after the ceremony to do who knows what, so I was going alone.

Or so I thought. When I got to my floor, there was a tall man wearing a blue suit standing in front of my door. He had slate-grey hair that was gelled back, and a scruffy beard that made his permanent frown seem even more severe. It was my father.

He was looking down at the phone in his hand, but looked up and noticed me when I dropped my keys out of shock.

"Hello, Jason," he said.

I said something really eloquent like, "Um."

"I've been waiting for you for a few hours," my dad said. "What took you so long to get here?"

"Uh, there was a ceremony just for political science majors, so I could get my diploma from the head of the department." I scratched the back of my head. "I'm sorry, uh, Dad, but what are you doing here? Why have you been waiting for me for four hours? Why didn't you just call me?"

"Oh, well I didn't know about that one. And I wanted it to be a surprise. Why don't you let me into your apartment?"

"Um, sure." I fumbled with my keys, and unlocked the door. "Sorry for the mess. Thal was staying here and you know how she is." I stopped. "Well, maybe not."

He stepped inside my rooms, and looked around. "It seems you're doing alright."

"Yeah, I guess." I put my keys and cap on my kitchen table. "Why are you here?"

"Can't I come see my son graduate?"

"Its just weird, after not talking to you for like, almost four years."

"Well, that's why I came. And to give you a congratulatory present."

Okay, so I was apprehensive about my dad being here. It made me think that something bad was going to happen, like being disowned, or hey, my wife hired a hitman to kill you to get you away from our stock holdings. See you in hell, bub. But at the words 'present', I let up on the bleak outlook. My father was terrible and was constantly absent, and left me at the mercy of a godmother who I had never met when I was three, but he did know how to give good presents. For example, the entirety of my college tuition.

"You didn't have to do that, Dad."

"Actually, your stepmother convinced me to do it."

"_What_?"

"She seems to think that welcoming you into the family is a good idea recently." My father shrugged. "I don't know."

"That's weird. Well, what is the present that she has in mind?"

"Well for one, graduate school."

I straightened up. "Really?"

"Yes. But you'll be getting your Master's in business."

"Why is that? Shouldn't I expand on the poli-sci Bachelor's?" Not to rain on his parade, or whatever, but what the hell was I going to do with a business degree?

"That has to deal with the second part of your gift." My dad was smiling. That was really strange.

"Which is?" I wish he would stop smiling. I was seriously weirded out.

"We are offering you a position at the company, once you get your Master's, of course."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yes. We plan on opening a second branch here in the city, and we want you to be the head."

I stared. "Can't one of my half-brothers do that?"

"They are incompetent." That's something I never would have expected to hear from my father. My half-brothers could do no wrong in his eye, usually. Maybe my stepmother had put the idea into his head.

"And I'm not?"

"You show promise. We are giving you a chance, Jason."

"Well…" I trailed off. "Thanks. This is a great opportunity."

"That it is. I'll send information to you about the school once I get back to California."

"Where is the school?" I asked.

"Oh, its here. In the city."

I smiled. "Cool."

"Yes. Anyway, I need to be getting to the airport. It was nice seeing you, son."

And then my father hugged me. This was one of the weirdest twenty minutes of my life.

"Um," I just sort of stood there. "Bye."

He nodded at me, then walked out the door.

Well, at least I had some interesting dinner conversation for the night. I pulled out my phone to text Thalia.

* * *

Piper almost spit out the bell peppers she had been chewing up.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"Yeah. Isn't that weird? He just showed up out of the blue."

"I wouldn't be complaining," Hazel said. "I would love it if my dad gave me a spot at his firm."

"No, you wouldn't," Nico frowned. "He tried to get me to go down that road for like, ten years. Terrible."

It might seem a little strange that Nico was there with the whole gang, but he had meshed pretty well with us the previous week at Percy's party. There was also lots of begging on my and Hazel's part to convince him to come.

Hazel rubbed her fingers together. "I'd get lots of money, though. More than I would with the art degree I'm going for."

Nico pointed his fork at her. "We already have money."

"Stop talking about money," Leo groaned. "I might cry."

"Sorry, Leo," I said. "I'm just glad he's paying for my graduate school in the city. Even its for something terrible."

"I'm glad you're staying in the city, Jason." Hazel pretended to shiver. "I would be all alone in the city after next year. Everyone who is left is going to be a senior!"

"You'll have me," Nico pointed out.

"Yeah, but wouldn't it be a little sad if my only friend in college was my brother?"

Nico shrugged. "Probably."

Frank put an arm around Hazel. "Don't worry, Hazel, I'll probably be going to grad school here, too."

Leo put an arm around Hazel's other side. "Yeah, no worries, Hazel. I live down the street, or whatever. You won't be all alone with Neeks."

"Who the hell is Neeks?" Reyna asked.

"Nico! Duh."

Nico glared at Leo. "Don't call me that."

"I thought Nico was the prince of darkness, Leo," I said.

"That was before I just figured out that Neeks bothered him more," Leo grinned.

"That's cruel," Percy said. "Can I call him that too?"

Nico shook his head. "Why am I hanging out with you all?"

Hazel smiled. "Because I asked nicely."

"Maybe its our dashing good looks," Percy said.

Nico shook his head. "That's definitely not it."

And so dinner went. It was nice, but also kind of sad. This would probably be one of the last times the whole gang was together, and even then, we were missing Annabeth, who had already gone back home with her family. The highlight of the meal was playing a subdued game of footsie with Nico underneath the table. I mean, I thought it was footsie. Maybe he was just accidentally nudging me with his foot, but a guy can dream.

Once dinner was over, and goodbyes were said, Nico and I headed home together. We stopped outside the door to his building.

"Well, that was an eventful day," I said.

"Maybe for you," Nico grumbled. "I got saddled with 'Neeks'."

"It is a pretty terrible nickname," I agreed. "I'm glad that you came to dinner, though."

"Yeah. Me too."

We just stood there for a few seconds, and suddenly, I realized there was some sort of weird tension between us. I guess I had been dwelling so much on what my dad said that I hadn't paid much attention to it, but there it was. I glanced over at Nico, whose eyes were fixed directly on my lips. Oh.

"Well, um," I said, not too nervously. Or, really nervously. I wasn't sure what to do. Like I said, being around Nico basically reduced me to some sweaty, nervous high school sophomore. I was so anxious around him sometimes. "Goodnight."

I turned around, and headed towards my building, before I heard Nico say, "Wait!"

I stopped, and looked back towards Nico.

"What?"

Nico stepped close to me, and under the streetlights, I realized that he was almost bright red.

"Congratulations," he said. "On everything."

And then he kissed me. On the lips. It was just a peck, but it had the effect on me as if he had just said something crazy sexual. I was so flustered.

And so was he. He pivoted back on his feet, and half walked-half ran into his apartment building.

I didn't try to call after him.  
I just had a huge smile plastered onto my face as I wandered back to my apartment.

* * *

**_A/N: Hey guys! As always, thanks so much for reading! I hope you liked this chapter, it was a lot of fun to write. I apologize for the lack of Annabeth, but honestly, I cannot write her. I tried, and it was just so terrible. Maybe another time._**  
**_I'm sorry to say, but the next chapter is going to be the last chapter :~( But I promise it will be just as long as this one, and with lots more cool stuff going on! By cool stuff, I mean its going to be really really Jewish, so maybe that's not everyone's idea of fun, but here we are._**

**_This is a really long note, I'm sorry. Again, I'd like to give a shout out to my soup mate Claire, who gave me so many ideas for this chapter! You rock eternally, babe._**  
**_Thanks again for reading! Don't forget to leave a favorite and a review, it will really make my day!_**


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